Young Justice: Till Kingdom Come
by Tikiboot
Summary: As Savage forwards world domination with Darkseid, Luthor's ambitions has him now aimed for the presidency. The League, desperate to keep pace, spreads teams around the globe to form a last line of defense. Beta is one such team. Now, in a new city with new faces and the return of a sardonic hero from space, can they succeed? Or will the world finally awaken to see the light.
1. A Man With Vision

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters or works as trademarked by DC Comics, Greg Weisman, or any other unmentioned parties. This is purely a work of fiction written by a fan who's nerdgasmed everywhere and needs a new pair of pants. All in the hopes YJ getting picked up for a potential S3.**

* * *

 **Gotham**

 **Sept. 14, 2016; 22:30**

The red-hot burning of flashing lights alighted a long line of reporters as he walked past. He nodded politely, shook a few hands here and there, took his time. Patient, calm, collected; looking every bit like a great white wading through a school of minnows. Microphones jockeyed for position, questions were hurled back and forth to get his attention: "How did you think you did tonight?" and "Could you explain a bit more about this topic?" were the usual ones. They were quickly becoming routine and staid, but he took them all in stride. Short, quick answers, a pleasant smile and a nod "thank you" before setting off. Get in, get out. A true Irish goodbye.

But the question on everyone's mind truly was: "Did Lex Luthor really believe he has what it takes at winning?"

And the humble answer he always gave: "Opportunity is American made, and in my humble regard, I intend to put that to the test."

That was good. Very good. Hit right to the heart of middle America. Gained him points with people whose collars were not quite as white as his Ralph Loren silk undershirt's was.

"Mr. Luthor!" A voice rang out from the midst of chaos. "Mr. Luthor over here!"

The caravan of his security kept Lex moving at a steady pace down the blue carpet, but upon seeing a familiar face he sauntered over ever so casually. Shaking a few more hands as he got close, signing the odd autograph too, Mercy Graves ever making sure to hound his every footstep; in spite of all the jubilation and cheering, she never looked to be at ease.

"Ms. Lane of the Daily Planet." Came his deep, rich voice. Lois was surprised. Despite all the world sounding off around them, Lex Luthor was very clear and easy to hear.

"So glad you noticed us." She tried not to make it sound like a scream, but her voice was drowned out by the braying of wild beasts. The crowd pressed as Lex got near, with an elbow nudging incessantly at her side to get her out of the way. She turned to see Jimmy and his camera get pushed away from her, and farm boy was nowhere to be seen. " _Damned vultures,"_ she thought. One reporter was so close, she caught a hint of his cheap after shave and mint bubblegum saturating his breath.

"I never forget familiar faces, especially one as beautiful as yours." Lex lifted his head to address the mob surrounding them as orderly as a school teacher admonishing children. "Please, now, please make some room for Ms. Lane and good ol' Mr. Olson there. For goodness sake, now. The poor boy is being pushed halfway to Arkham." Mercy nodded over to two large, black-suited bodyguards who moved without hesitation. They shoved their tree trunks arms into the crowd and made way for Lois to breath again.

"Thanks." Lois sighed exasperatedly.

"I am anything if not a gentleman." He said with a cordial smile.

"And now politician?" Lois didn't have a lot of time. She to make this quick. Strike hard and strike fast, keep him on his toes. "Been making yourself quite a bid for the Presidency, Mr. Luthor, ever since you reneged on Former Secretary Tseng's U.N. position."

"Well, G. Gordon might have gotten a bit ahead himself there. As the U.N. Charter states no citizen from any permanent member of the Security Council can be elected to the position of General Secretary." Lex nodded.

"So you changed sights onto becoming president? Very admirable. Seems so perfect it's almost like someone had written this script for you already: 'Saved the world, now onto saving America.'

Lex chuckled in his sonorous voice. "Haha, a very good line, Ms. Lane. 'Saved the world, now saving America.' We could use someone like you on my campaign staff. And when they pen the movie we can call it, 'Stranger Than Fiction."

He laughed so easily it made you unsettled, and flashed another smile to all the media.

"But 'yes'," he continued. "I'd be remiss to say I didn't get my position without being a bit...opportunistic. I believe that is the American Way: Utility over humility. You see a job needs doing, you get it done and for me that means you do it well. I did what I could in order to free the world from The Reach - with help from the Justice League, of course - as is my natural obligation as a member of the human race."

Phew! Did he know how to talk. Always a trait which Lex had, even before he started this whole political train.

"Now, as my natural obligation as an American, I seek to do the same thing. But instead of freeing us from alien overlordship, I intend to depose party politics, polarization and the bureaucratic pandering which has shackled this country for too long."

The chant of "Luthor, Luthor, Luthor" erupted the crowd as his supporters started cheering louder. He spoke to these people, but also for all the cameras pointed in his direction. For all the families at home watching. To them he was a pinnacle stone standing broad and tall in the heat of a desert, white-washed and bleached but solidly there. A prime example of what a man can achieve on his own willpower, working along the lines of the capitalistic train of thought and an American 'can-do' attitude.

"You want to talk about the budget, immigration, health care, El Nino? Fine. Hell, I will even talk about Dennis Rodman going to North Rhelasia. But in order to do my job and do it well, I will not waste time on frivolous trivialities. There's a deeper problem in America, and unlike my opponents, I'd like to address it. I will not stand and defend the status quo, Ms. Lane. I seek to innovate it."

He wasn't imposing physically, yet he could make anyone feel small. Lex had shoulders which carried the burden of a multi-billion dollar corporation on them, and so were strong enough to deal with political paparazzi. Lex walked away before Lois could keep him talking. He moved with Mercy Graves's hand firmly on his shoulder, guiding him down the walkway to his campaign bus with his shining pate plastered on the side.

"You catch all that?" She asked Jimmy.

"I got it, Lois. No worries." Jimmy gave her a thumbs up.

"No worries." Lois looked to see Luthor continue his way, all pleasant smiles and easy going attitude. "Yeah, right."

What she wouldn't give to get a one-on-one interview with the man. A proverbial Pandora's Box. Opening himself up a little to pique your curiosity, only to slam himself shut again on your fingers.

The Luthor chants never settled down denoting his popularity, but that didn't ease Lois at all. She had done reports on the businessman Lex Luthor for years, so she knew how he operated. He was a master manipulator, a cunning Machiavellian who'd be more at home working the politico in medieval courts than in meeting room offices. And as she looked around, Luthor's blown up head on posters, t-shirts and television screens, she couldn't help this sinking feeling screaming in the pit of her stomach: "He's playing you!"

Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't.

Lois had spent enough of her career to know that money talks and bullshit walks. Good thing for Lex Luthor that was exactly what it took to win a political election in America and he's got plenty of both to dish out.

"C'mon Jimmy." Lois turned to around to head back to the van. "Let's go see where Smallville went and get out of here. I need a drink."

* * *

The bus doors opened with the sound of air pistons going and gears grinding, followed by Lucio Armani soles clacking against steel steps.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" Lex said immediately taking the damn shoes off. "The minute I find that Italian cobbler with the sweatshop full of middle-aged Chinese women who pieced these things together, I'm going to kick his canoli so hard it'll wind up in his throat. Evening, Mr. Estevez."

The heavy set and heavily mustachioed driver nodded back. "Evening, Mr. Luthor."

"Now Mr. Estevez I don't care if you have to run over people, as soon as you see a lane you take it. I want to be out of Gotham before midnight."

"Yes, Mr. Luthor."

Lex nodded. He wanted to be out of this city as soon as possible. This town thrived off tarnishing powerful men's reputations, and this fetid quagmire gave off a stench of the fanatical which permeated from its streets and into its people. My God, did the Gotham mob gather tonight. These people were so deprived of hope that as soon as Lex came along, it was like the second coming of Christ. Well, with a city that breeds the likes of the Bat, the clown and that hard-nosed police commissioner, what else could these people want.

"Mercy," The silent countenance of his watch-dog stepped up alongside him as he made his way toward his private room at the end of the bus. "Send a thank you letter to the fine woman who sent me that homemade pie bought at Restaurant Depot. Quite good despite the insincerity. Also, move over my meeting with Senator Wallace from Wednesday to Tuesday, but call back tomorrow and reschedule for Wednesday again. I need to keep that man on his toes, lest he get lazy. And be sure to message Mayor Laurence, please. To stifle down any worry he's got. Garrett was full of hot-air when he mentioned his name - he's got nothing and if he does it wont last the night. I guarantee that. Tell him immediately so he doesn't get himself in a pickle and then tweet his pickle."

Mercy nodded silently and kept following. But as Lex reached the door to his room, in a flash Mercy reached out with cybernetic enhanced speed and grabbed his hand. He wasn't startled at all that she sensed danger. He felt it, too. And they didn't even move a foot out of the city yet.

"It's all right, Mercy, it's all right. I know." She gave him a stern look. She would very much prefer going in herself, but Lex wouldn't have that. He had a good hunch as to who lurked on the other side of the door and he wasn't to be intimidated. "It's fine," he comforted Mercy, patting her hand. "No need to grind your gears, nothing will happen. Tell Gyles and Sweetwater to get their teams into the Escalades and move when we move."

Mercy never fully let him go, her fingertips dragging along his hand as he pulled away. She didn't want to seem like she was begging, but his safety was her job. her prerogative. There was a presence she had picked up as soon as they stepped on the bus. She would have to have a talk with Senor Estevez as soon as they get everything settled. She walked away but never took her eyes off Lex as he entered the dark confines of his room, disappearing as if walking into the shadows of Hades itself. Afraid not of what might the presence do to Lex, but what she might not be able to do in order to protect him.

But Lex was unafraid.

He shut the door on the outside world, enclosing himself in a room with a cape inside no less. Might've been a fretful thing for any other man in his position, but Lex wasn't like "any other man". He didn't bother turning on any of the lights, didn't bother looking around, just walked over to the rosewood bar armoire in the corner. Damn did he ever need a drink. He pulled out the ten year Van Ryn brandy and two cups: one for him and one for his guest.

"Well, I thought skulking around in shadows was the Bat's job?" Lex said as he dropped a single ice cube in each glass, pouring the strong amber liquid out so he can take in its scent. "He can make himself disappear entirely when he wishes, but to do so in font of all those flashing lights? That is a rare gift." Lex walked over to a particularly dark part of his spacious room, and offered the cup into the darkness. A hand reached out and took it as daintily as it could without breaking the glass. "Another perk of being Superman, I suppose. Like your X-Ray vision. High school must've been a blast."

A towering shadow moved to reveal a blue and red ensemble emerge from obscurity, symbol of the "S" peaking out from shadow. Stern eyes, eyes which could shoot out tendrils of red fire and lobotomize Lex right then if they wished, stared with an intent to threaten but not harm. Lex knew how the boy-scout worked: all bark, but no bite.

"Actually high school was the worst time for me." The son of Krypton said.

"Then even more reason to drink." Lex replied.

He frowned as he looked down at the glass and swirled the brandy around a bit

"I don't particularly enjoy alcohol."

Luthor rolled his eyes. "Of course you don't, why would you. Silly offer."

"My physiology doesn't allow me to enjoy it nearly so much as you." Kal reasoned with a hint of smile appearing on his lips. "Not strong enough," he added.

Luthor smiled into his cup and made an audible laugh as he took a sip. "What a mildly witty retort. Points, my friend, points." Lex walked over to his closet as undid the buttons on his custom Desmond Marrion Supreme Bespoke with one hand. A suit that if Clark Kent were so inclined to want, he would be expected to fork over his annual salary and then some in order to buy it. But Lex always enjoyed wearing his money. Not in a gaudy way, but in a way which denoted power stemming from corporate America. The part where overpriced suits and ties were worn like heraldry, where battlefields never left meetings rooms, and peace treaties were negotiated with firm handshakes and settled with drinks at the Omni Bar in Metropolis.

"I'm sure you saw the debate. Out of curiosity, how well did you think I did?" Lex asked as he put his suit jacket away and then worked on his pants. How he was able to do this whilst still holding his damned brandy should be a super-power in of itself.

"Well enough that it warranted a talk with you, Lex. In private."

"And I thank you for that subtlety. Truth be told, I was hoping it was you in here and not the goddamned Batman. Lord knows nothing gets yellow journalism going than a story related to him."

" _Subtlety, right."_ Kal thought as he Lex stripped down to his boxers. "I should be the last person you'd want to see right now, Lex. I don't know what it is you or the Light are seeking to gain here, but as far as I'm concerned with this election, you're bid for the presidency, all of it. I don't need X-Ray vision to see how full of sh-"

"Whoa!" Lex said throwing out his hand. "Let's not get carried away here, don't want the children to hear you." It might've been hard to take Lex seriously at the moment, seeing as how he looked about as composed as a bachelor on the Vegas strip. If only Kal didn't discard his camera, this shot would've been priceless.

"Spare me the same song you see fit to sing outside my window every night." Lex continued. "I don't know if you've noticed this, but I don't have any hair by which to throw down to you."

Another smug smile, a quick sip of brandy, followed by a crash of glass and sudden rush of air as Superman brought his fist to wrap it around Lex's neck. He didn't squeeze, although he could. He didn't choke, although no doubt Superman wanted to. He simply lifted him up as a child would a rag-doll. Lex still wasn't intimidated, though.

"How far do you need to go until it gets to be too much?" He asked. "You can stand up on a podium and talk about the betterment of mankind, how humanity can grow stronger by working together, give yourself a pat on the back with the hand that saved the world. But I don't buy it; never have, never will. No matter how much you pretend, stop talking like one of them, Lex, because you're not. Even if you'd like to be."

"I could say the same thing to you." Lex's voice strained a little as added pressure from Kal's hand squeezed down on his larynx, but his confidence never stopped. He took another sip from his brandy, even if it pained him to swallow. "Power has a funny way of concealing itself," Kal could smell the spice of the brandy on his breath as he talked. "People want it, but society compels us to hide it. We don't let people see it in us, not entirely. Because if we do, it can alienate us, distance us from those whom we try to help. And you know how damning that feeling is. It's the exact reason why you hide who you really are. You don't think I haven't deduced you might've been one of those faces out there in the crowd watching tonight? I wonder what was your disguise? Cameraman? Reporter? Adoring fan? Pretending to be a sheep, yet all the while a wolf in wool - an alien in man's clothing - Argh!"

Lex's voice creaked as more added pressure was exerted. Damn it all did Kal not want to hear more of this. Patience had always been a virtue that his parents taught him, but it was becoming all too alluring to throttle Lex right here and now. He could, he wanted to, he wished it were possible. But goddamn himself could he not live with that decision. It would be too blatantly disgusting if it were to happen. Kal wondered if Lex stripped down just in case because he knew how ignoble it would look if the deed were done. A little far-fetched, but Kal learned never to put anything past Luthor.

A death glare emanated from the most powerful man in the universe, followed by a low threat which grumbled with all the power of a slumbering dragon. "No matter what it is you're planning, no matter what it takes, you're not going to get away with this. We will stop you."

Lex smiled.

"And that's the beauty of it all. It's not up to you anymore. It's up to the sheep. Their voices, their choices, them! You might be faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But do you have the guts to control them?"

The steel titan stood motionless, speechless as he continued to size Lex up. Fists that could tear apart titanium were primed like pistons ready to be put into gear, but they never did. Kal kept it all in check because there was an even greater weakness Superman possessed other than Kryptonite, and it was fear of his own power.

 _Goddammit,_ Kal thought as he loosened his grip and placed Lex down. He turned his back on him with his cape whirling in a rush.

"You never trusted your power, I understand that. But then what does it say that you and your friends are the most powerful outside entity of any instated government on this planet, hm? You expect us to trust that?" Lex said rubbing his sore throat. "You might be incorruptible, but can the same be said for the rest of you? No."

Superman stood as still as a cliff facing the tide of oncoming waves. Lex never was one to stop pressing an advantage, but of course Superman never looked to be bowed. He was the Man of Steel, whose shoulders can lift airliners and hurl them billions of miles away without breaking a sweat; indomitable power personified. He could make anyone, even Lex Luthor feel small.

And that was frightening.

"This is bigger than The Light, bigger than the petty pissing contest between you and me. The League has always been the greatest measure on this planet to the question, 'Does absolute power corrupt absolutely?' And I'm going to show these people they don't need a man who wears his underwear on the "outside" of his pants to ensure you don't cross that line." Lex said rubbing his sore throat.

Kal rounding back on Lex, but before where there was heated anger set in those eyes now there was hesitant understanding. "Power doesn't corrupt people, Lex. It's people who corrupt power. And the line where I draw my limit is where instead of snapping your neck, I'm just going to ruin your RV." Superman said with a smile.

"Excuse me?" But before Lex could say anything else, a moment of inimitable speed demonstrated itself before his eyes.

A whirlwind pulsed in the room before a swift after-image of blue and red dissipated as the shock receded, leaving Lex looking at a gaping hole left in the roof of his half-a-million dollar ride. Already Lex could hear the collective gasps outside as onlookers rushed to and fro in confusion. In seconds Mercy would come barging through the door, Gyles and or Sweetwater would sick their men out so people would clear the road, and he knew he'd be stuck answering questions and conducting interviews about this incident on whatever morning show he was scheduled to go on next.

Lex sighed. He made his way over to the brandy. To hell with the glass, he wanted the bottle.

Rapacious knocking on his door alerted him to Mercy's presence. Lex threw his head back and took a generous swig of the alcohol. He might drink himself to sleep tonight. Been a while since he did that. He plopped himself unceremoniously on his bed staring right back at the gigantic hole left behind by the boy-scout. The stars were out. Wouldn't be so bad getting drunk looking up at them.

The little beacons of light broke through the pall of the darkness, innumerable balls of fire defiantly shining on. Much like how the Light envisioned themselves in accordance to the League - bright lights hoping to shine through a shroud lulling people into a false sense of security. The Light wished to break through the naive ignorance the so-called "champions of Earth" have sheathed round the world. To draw that blade and surge forth to limits mankind can't ever aspire too while whimsical hall-monitors watch their every move. Humanity deserves a more enlightened sense of direction. At least, that's what Lex believed.

Luthor tipped the bottle into his mouth as he heard the door smash and Mercy come crashing through. _"It's not Lex Luthor CEO of LexCorp versus Superman anymore."_ He thought. _"Not even Lex Luthor and The Light against the Justice League. This is about Lex Luthor, soon to be President of these fine United States, versus an antiquated sense of authority._ _And I'm going to show these people they don't need a 'super man' to lead them into a world of tomorrow. Just one with vision."_

He closed his eyes to lessen the oncoming dizziness of the brandy, and the expected interrogation Mercy would subject him. To ensure his physical well-being, of course...

Well.

Maybe that last bit didn't seem so bad to Lex.

 _to be continued..._


	2. Welcome to the Jungle Pt I

**El Rey, California**

 **Nov. 13; 14:30 PDT**

The Autumn California sun hung lazilly in the sky, its rays still giving off enough warmth to thankfully ward away the brisk chill cast from the windy San Emilia Bay. Kaldur wore a simple red sweatshirt which M'gann had purchased for him, a pair of ratty jeans, and a simple black backpack hiding his water bearers. They did their job admirably. Not necessarily from buffeting against the breeze - for he was used to far colder temperatures in the ocean deep - but for blending in. As far as anyone could tell, it looked like he and a bunch of friends were just hiking about El Rey. Nothing out of the ordinary...

"So we're the 'B' team?" A voice called out from back.

...Except for the impatient, time traveling, speed demon, known as Bart Allen. Who saw fit to voice his discontentment - and their presence - all along the trail.

"Technically you are Beta squad, so..." Kaldur responded. It was meant to be conveyed as a joke, but Bart gave Kaldur a disbelieving snort.

"You are not the 'B' team, Bart." Kaldur urged. "Just a part of the team that needs to 'be' here."

Bart harrumphed audibly. Problem was no one looked forward to working with the League more than him. It was a chance to team with his famous grandfather, a man whom Bart had no interaction with in the future save for the holo discs passed around in his internment camp. Also, more importantly, it was an opportunity to pay homage to Wally as Kid Flash, to aid his mentor and save the world. Just like Wally did..

Unfortunately the mode crashed hard when Kaldur reassigned Beta Squad El Rey, a midway city in California. Only until further notice, he told them. A dubious statement if Bart ever heard one, and he was still iffy on what the word 'dubious' meant.

"We're not even technically supposed to be here." Bart pointed out.

"C'mon, Bart, chill." Virgil noted as he wiped sweat off his brow; growing up in Dakota City hadn't prepared him for the rigor of a long nature walk. Or for carrying manhole covers either. _"Incognito my butt!... *huff*... This sucks! Even my thoughts are losing breath."_ Virgil choked down another bottle of water as Beta continued making way up the hill. Though the electro-magnetism he emitted was enough to levitate the near three hundred pound slab of metal on his back easy, it was still a bitch. But it was fine, he knew he needed training anyway, and unfortunately this mission stopped him from kicking it with Black Lightning. So for right now, this was all he had.

"But technically he's right, we're not." Came the voice of Mal Duncan behind them, who looked like a regular pack horse carrying all of Karen's "equipment". If half the Macy's California Fall catalog could be called necessary.

"I know." Kaldur sighed. "And we must keep it that way."

Kaldur knew this venture was a huge PR risk on the League's part. The President, though showing good will with the League, was still as of yet reluctant to allow JL member heroes manning hideouts nationwide. And plus, the support from a president primed to step down from office seemed a hollow consolation. And now with Lex Luthor becoming a prime candidate, things went from hard to disgustingly difficult fast. Let alone the fact Congress was still arbitrating if it was "Constitutional" allowing the Justice League to have forward operating bases stateside. It was a tedious process to be sure. A process that made Kaldur glad Atlantis had the wisdom of Aquaman alone to guide them - give him one king as opposed to a hundred senators any day.

"We don't concern ourselves with politics." Kaldur said, continuing along the path. "Whatever Congress's decision in December will be, we shall respect it. But until then, we carry on as usual. Protect the people we can, stop the bad guys when they show up, do our jobs. Simple as that."

"A little counter-intuitive to try and respect the government's decisions, while at the same time 'not' respecting the government's decisions. Right?" Questioned Virgil. "Now, hey, you know me. I'm all for hiding things from the government and stuff, but isn't this a little too 'Black Ops'? If anyone finds we're here - *huff*- in El Rey - *huff* - wouldn't that cause an - *huff*- incident? Phooo! Yo are we getting close?"

"I think you been getting too used to flying around on that manhole cover, Virg." Joked Mal.

"You aint the one -*huff*- carrying it."

Karen elbowed Mal in the stomach. Saying where Mal was an over six foot tall, former collegiate athlete, Virgil was a scrawny, fifteen year old kid from the block. "Excuse me we can't lug around a gold shield all the time, Captain Ass."

"Funny - *huff*- pet name." Virgil tried to joke and Kaldur appreciated the levity.

 _"At least the team can still be in good spirits."_ He thought.

"Walking on the opposite side of the law has given us a better perspective on how things can get done, huh? I don't think you ever would've had the balls to hide secret bases from Uncle Sam before today." Said Artemis as she came up to him.

It was still odd for Kaldur addressing Artemis as anything but what he became accustomed to, but the black jumpsuit and dufflebag she carried with her orange armor reminded him she was no longer Artemis. That was Wally's partner. This was Tigress.

"We were already hiding where we congregated before, is this is any different?" Kaldur asked.

"A little," Stepping atop the rocky outcropping, Artemis took in her new surroundings like a wild animal assessing her new territory. "But I think operating a clandestine cell on American soil is a little more 'politically charged' than simply playing hide-and-seek in a Batcave." Artemis responded.

Kaldur joined her at the edge of the rocky outcropping and surveyed El Rey. An urban jungle of multi-storied skyscrapers of steel and glass and concrete climbing into the sky, contrasting with the boardwalk and beach outlining its edge. The Pinnacle Tower - the largest and most noticeable building in the city - at its center across from the Manifest Destiny Bridge, a blue-steeled archway crossing the bay. Neon signs and billboards abounded everywhere, selling products in a myriad of different languages.

"El Rey has a few low-key metas not operating with the League," Kaldur noted over to Artemis. "A few more showing up won't necessarily cause a stir."

"Hopefully." Said Karen as she and Mal assisted Virgil and his manhole past the view.

"Right now we only have legal authority around Sacramento and China Lake - and one of those is a US military base. Governor Mendez has so far been cooperative with us throughout the process, but she's in a precarious position. She's was okay with allowing the League to operate autonomously as it did before The Reach invasion, but since the election, she's been hesitant about her support in recent weeks. Polls suggest though she may be fine with the League's third party arbitration, many Californians may not be. And with the debate moving here in a few months -"

"And because she doesn't want to lose all those electoral votes, she's starting to renege. Gotcha. 'Every girl for herself'. I get that." Artemis said. "Funny. Once the threat of alien invasion passes, it's like people don't wanna be too grateful for us helping save the world."

Kaldur continued his way up the path, leaving the view of El Rey behind.

"People are still enjoying their freedom from the Reach's influence." He said. "They know how accommodating they were when the Reach arrived, how quick they were to allow them into their lives, and how quickly they had been deceived. So after it all, can you blame them for playing close to the chest." Artemis followed Kal as he moved passed a few bushes and moved over a fallen tree.

"And if there's one lesson I learned while I worked with my father." Kaldur continued, moving past the last bit of foliage and coming to a large clearing where the path broke. "Is that you can never be too careful in whom you place your trust."

Artemis stopped in her tracks to view the large, weathered lighthouse which stood tall against the backdrop of a blue ocean. It could've been beautiful - once - in a time when lighthouses still were an essential piece of nautical technology. But though building has since fallen into disrepair, Kaldur smiled appreciatively at the tower while Karen and Mal shared skeptical looks, Bart looked liked the mode absolutely shut down and Virgil was positively relieved; dropping flat on his back upon realizing his Iron Man march was finally over.

"Well it's no Mount Justice." Mal gestured towards the Lighthouse.

"Don't roll out the red carpet or anything, we just saved the world. No biggie." Karen said disheartened; she wasn't expecting a Hilton Grand Hotel experience, but definitely not Cabin Fever either.

"The end of the world called, it wants its house back." Bart said taking in his new abode.

"Well," Artemis said over to Kaldur. "At least it's got a view."

For all intents and purposes, for her, this was fine. She and her mother had lived in far worse conditions since before they moved to the Gotham ghettos, and the fact El Rey wasn't too far from Palo Alto either felt reassuring. Artemis knew it wasn't healthy to dwell, but she never really wanted to let go of a few certain things that had come to be related to Wally. Her former costume and alter-ego was fine - that was just a name and set of clothes. But that house had good memories and she didn't want to let those go. It was a bitch to pay the overhead by herself every month, though.

"Welcome home, Beta." Kaldur smiled out in spite of the consternation voiced from his comrades.

"Home. Right..." Artemis sighed, hoping perhaps her time by the sea might ease her mind.

"*huff*...*huff*...*huff*...Thank...*huff*...God...*huff*...!" Virgil eked out. "We made it!"

* * *

 **Tesoro Heights, El Rey**

 **16:15 PDT**

The alarm had been ringing since approximately nine that morning. Nonstop. He recalled getting up the first time and hitting the snooze, the second time smashing it with his left hand, and finally the third time just letting the damn thing go. "I got time", he said to himself in that half-awake/half-asleep mode where nothing seemed real and everything was about keeping that nice, comfy, cozy feeling in bed.

That and because he had incurred the worst night of drinking ever and his body still wasn't his own. It was only until he heard the vibration from his cell where he finally decided to wake up. Slamming the damn alarm for the final time with his right, the large spiked guard of his wristband cracking it into pieces, Hunter turned to see a number and a face highlighted across the screen. Jesus. He didn't feel like talking - at least not to her. Not right now. Just let it go to voicemail, he said to himself.

A ping let him know a message had been left, and when looking at the phone, 'ten' in fact were left.

"Oh joy," Hunter thought as he ran his thumb across the screen, "Not three weeks back and I already did something wrong. Awesome."

Little did he know, it wasn't what he had done that earned Hunter a scathing voicemail. It was a preemptive strike. A warning in the likely event of what he might do. Hunter input his password and prepared to unleash the floodgates of hell. He reluctantly put the phone to his ear.

It didn't start off as a slight warning, a few quiet, serious words spoken. Nope. A shit-storm of loudness and profanity erupted from a squeaky voice yelling through his phone. He flinched at not realizing how loud the damn thing could be.

He nodded his head when hearing the usual: 'yes' he was a dirtbag; 'yes' he was lazy; 'yes' he was arrogant and self-centered. Some other stuff in Spanish. Yada yada yada. Hunter rolled his eyes. If that wall she wanted to tell him then he'll chalk it up to "time of the month" and go back to sleep. But before turned the phone off, the last bit of the message made his heart sink and made his eyes widen."Oh shit," he said as goosebumps sprouted. Hunter looked at his clock, it's smashed face getting payback as blocky red numbers knocked his throbbing head back into lucidity.

 **4:20**

It was the very beginning of rush hour. Jesus. Numbers might as well have read "Screw you, asshole."

"Oh shit!" Hunter jumped out of bed. "Today. Today! Oh Jesus why yesterday!"

Of all the days to have acted a fool and gotten drunk, it had to be the one before this one dammit! His thread throbbed like someone smashed a frying pan against his face. Not that he didn't deserve it - he would be the first ones in line if someone was offering on the boardwalk outside the apartment - but it was cool. He was cool; nothing a fistful of Advil shouldn't fix. And a cold shower... And energy drink...And whole lotta hurry the hell up.

"I'm not gonna make it." Went the mantra as the water hit. Shit! Was it freakin' cold today. Not that it ever really got warm, but still he would've at least appreciated to be given the benefit of the doubt. "I'm not gonna make it." He said again hustling out of the bathroom, to which he slid across the hard wood floor, lost his balance, slipped and fell. Queue the laugh reel.

"Uggghhhhhaaaaa..." Hunter Windstar groaned. His towel fell off unceremoniously, leaving him naked, cold and with a little less pride than when he started this morning on the floor. Not the first this has happened, sadly.

Literally using his wobbly dresser to pick himself up, Hunter clawed to the top. Nothing greeted him upon finishing his climb save for a mess of coins, a receipt from Mahoney Subs, an opened condom pack, and a crinkled up movie stub for the Good Dinosaur. Oh and the picture of the unkempt, unshaven, naked and hungover hobo with the blood-shot eyes and tattoos... Oh, shit, wait. No. That was Hunter's reflection in the mirror.

Shaking his head, he pulled out a pair of black jeans which clung to the outside of his dresser thanks to a leg being wedged in its drawer. And speaking of drawers, no, he wasn't going to wear any: No time. And time dictated Hunter needs go commando as he peered over his shoulder to look at his clock.

 **4:34**

Cutting it closer than it should be, but he can do this.

Grabbing a faded crimson El Rey Conquistadors T-shirt, slipping on boots and snatching Aviators with his favorite leather jacket and a Toro Loco energy drink, Hunter rushed out the door of his apartment, through the rundown hallway, and into what he could only surmise was the surface of the sun.

"Oof!" Hunter cried, immediately putting the sunglasses on to block out that bitch of fiery orb in the sky.

And the sight of his very pissed off, very portly, aggressively Indian landlord who Hunter knew had been hunting for him the past three weeks.

"Oh great." he thought walking down the steps. "Good Morning, Mr. Chandrasakharta!" Hunter greeted with energy and an affable smile. "That paunch is looking large and in charge today? Is that Mrs. Chandrasakharta's famous Mm-mm Moon Dal Cheela I smell?" Hunter nodded to the plate.

For a while charm shielded Hunter from the dragon's wrath, the strategy of using his one-hit wonder status and six pack abs to win over Mrs. Chandrasakharta and their daughter working to perfection. But a slow-burning fire had been lit under his butt and Hunter was feeling the heat more than his bunghole after eating Mrs. Chandrasakharta's world-famous curry - which could melt the steel doors of Fort Knox itself. Luckily Hunter had been able to give Mr. C the slip, much to his landlord's ire. But man was he relentless, as evidenced by the lounge chair and plate of food sitting outside Hunter's apartment complex.

"Oh nonononono," Came Mr. Chandraskharta's heavy Punjab accent. Wagging his finger - and paunch - with every "no' he dropped. "You do not complement my wife's cooking and think to make delightful conversation. You and I, Mr. Hunter, you and I must have words."

"I absolutely agree with you Mr. Chandrasakharta, I was meaning to talk to you about that hot water situation in my room which, oddly enough I know, still does not seem to be working. But I really need to get going, so we should continue this tonight."

"Nononono! Tonight is never 'tonight' with you. It is always some other night in an unforeseen future."

Hunter spied the '77 Vokswagon van with the terrible paint job of a wolf running across a shooting star's tail a ways down the street. He didn't remember parking so friggin far. Walking towards the ride though, he knew he needed to stay strong and so carried on with his easy-going smile still on his face. Mr. C was tailing right behind biting his heels

"Patience is a mighty virtue Mr. Chandrasakharta. One I believe is worth cultivating and nurturing, because even though the toil can be bitter, its fruit is sweet." Hunter said opening the driver-side door - Yes it was open, no one in their right mind would want to steal this piece of junk.

An awkward silence came upon the two as Mr. Chandrasakharta glared at Hunter. Hunter sipped loudly from his energy drink and nodded his head in mock satisfaction, as if he just dropped a philosophy bomb by which his landlord had nothing to disarm.

"You're drunk, aren't you?" Chandraskharta said dead-pan.

Hunter shook his head.

"Aha! Correction: 'was' drunk." He said.

The time was now **4:42**

"Nonononononononono!" Hunter let Chandrasakharta explode in a tirade flailing arms, 'no's', and jiggling belly as he seemed to be beside himself as he faced the walking pile of horse manure that was Hunter Windstar.

"Mr. C, I understand your frustration, but I don't think yelling in public is a good look for anyone."

"Nonono, I will shriek most horribly at you, sir!" The sound of an opening window came as now a new combatant entered the arena: Mrs. C. Popping her pleasantly plump head out the window.

"Yamal! Shut that balding trap of yours up! Oh, hello, Hunter. I didn't see you there. I'm still waiting for my song." She batted her eyes from the second story.

Hunter brought both his hands to cover his heart

"The sight of a beautiful woman is ever the heart for an artist's inspiration, Mrs. C.. Your enthralling vision today has spurned me to compose a master epic worthy of Aphrodite herself."

"Oh Hunter, please." Mrs. C turned red with a schoolgirl blush, but Mr. C's face went with fury.

"Mr. Chandrasakharta, it is a sin you'd be wasting away your time with me, when you should be spending it cherishing your enchanting wife." Hunter said turning to his landlord

"You!"

"Me?"

"You!" Chandraskharta exclaimed with all paunch and arms. "Out of the ten years you've lived here, you've paid for only five!

"Technically I've only really been here for five, sooooo..."

"Your alarm is constantly going off earlier than it should, waking me up. And you NEVER TURN IT OFF!"

"I have bad sleep paralysis."

Mr. Chandrasakharta then paced back and forth like a caged Bengal tiger. "You constantly play that annoying guitar of yours to the point I'm so nervous, I take pills for hyper-tension. You've caused my prostate to enlarge itself to the size of a grapefruit. You're always eating my wife's cooking - cooking which should be meant for me! And! And! You slept with my daughter, you bastard!"

Hunter shot Mr. C an appalled look.

"Mr. C!" Hunter feigned hurt. "How can you say that? We're both Indian brothers."

"Not the same thing! I have the dot on my head; you have stupid feathers in your hair. And to hell with that bullshit, anyway; you're whiter than the pictures of Jesus you white people hang in your homes. You're no Indian."

The time was **4:51**

"After everything we've been through, the bond and respect we share as friends, fathers, and fellow men. You think I could be so disrespectful, so base and lewd, that I would deign besmirch yours and Jay's honor by -"

Hunter stopped as a true vision of beauty jogged around the corner, one who's very sight could inspire great works artist's would offer up to Aphrodite herself. She had on tight black leggings which squeezed her curvaceous build, a blue track top which did little in stopping the noticeable bounce of her chest, accented by her exotic "girl next door' look . A straight "A", twenty-one year old Stanford student, she had everything going for her as Jay beamed a smile to her father.

"Sup, dad." Jay said as she came over to place a peck on his check.

"Heeey, Hunter." She said lustfully before casting Hunter a flirty wink and heading up the stairs to her house.

"...Okay. I did have sex with Jay, but I want you to know you never left my mind, Mr. C."

"Nonononononono!"

"Hold onto that thought Mr. C., we'll continue this when I get back." The transmission skipped a beat at first, sputtering and spitting before coming to life, giving Hunter the chance to speed off and and get as clear from the blast as possible.

* * *

 **Watchtower**

"If it bothers you so much, then you should of let me handle it." A gravely voice said behind Kal.

 _"The only person that can sneak up on me like that."_ He thought as Batman appeared by his side, overlooking the preparations for Team Gamma's departure.

"Lex is a malignant narcissist who's got an all consuming need to want to manipulate everything and everyone around him. He needs to have it all and is willing to do anything obtaining it. Classic traits of a psychopath. Frankly, makes him the perfect politician." Five months in and Luthor still led in the polls and appeared the clear-favorite heading into December. So "yes" he'd agree with Bruce's sentiment.

It didn't make him feel any better.

"He called it a methane burst inside his cabin. A methane burst?! And people are giving him the luxury of believing it."

"People still believe there's an extinct dinosaur lurking somewhere in Loch Ness. To be surprised they'd believe something as silly as a methane burst happening inside a million dollar, custom built RV isn't so hard to fathom."

Kal's brows furrowed. He remembered what his father had once told him in Kansas when they were off tending their cows. _"One of'em is smart,"_ he would say. _"Manageable. Docile. Easy to handle. But a group of'em? About as wayward as tumbleweeds. So fidgety they'll go whichever way the wind blows."_ It was only when Kal got older did he understand the same sentiment was applicable to people too. But there was another part to that conversation which stood out to him more than it should.

 _"It's a good thing you got the strength to help me out with this, Clark. Without you here, I don't know what I'd do."_

Kal cringed a little at that. His father meant nothing by it, and it was unfair to pollute such a fond memory of him with his current pessimism. But getting older, no matter who you are, always seemed to bring a condition where people look back at past lessons and see deeper meanings even if they were dubious.

He placed his forehead against the cool glass. If there was ever a time he wished he could enjoy alcohol as much as most people, now would be as good a time to start.

"As I said, you should've let me handle it. Barging in and out is not the best way you corner a man like Lex Luthor. You watch and hound his every away at his ego. Show him he's not in control. Make him afraid."

Bruce made it sound so easy, but Kal knew better.

"He isn't some misguided, gang-banging teenager from Gotham who still abides by his curfew thanks to you. He's Lex Luthor. It's not that easy." Kal shook his head. "I had him, Bruce. So many times in the past. I had him and could've ended it then but I didn't. Maybe it's because I'm so arrogant I can't help but see the best in people regardless of who they are. But every time I let him slip through my fingers, he comes back with an agenda even more threatening than the last."

He could still feel Lex's neck against his grip, his pulse coursing through him, his muscles straining and beginning to bruise as he clenched. All he needed to do was squeeze, but... God! Did that feel filthy.

Kal looked down at his hand clenched in a massive fist. Once it had been drenched in the hydrocephalic fluid from Brainiac's skull, covered in the enzymes secreted from the Black Mercy, felt the cosmic pressure emitted from the Book of Infinite Pages. But the thought of having human blood coating them...

Batman didn't say anything. He wanted to, for he could relate to Clark on so many levels in this, but it would be wasted breath; he learned a long time ago people need to find out where the line lay for themselves by themselves. Because everyone is different, everyone is subjected to a different set of rules. Gotham isn't Metropolis, Batman wasn't nearly as powerful as Superman, how both survive in their respected jungles was totally different. For Bruce it was always a question of not compromising in light of the darkness surrounding him, but for Clark it was about struggling to find the limit to his strength.

To which Bruce always though but never had the gall to say: "How can you ever find a limit to a man that has none?"

"How are the kids? All set and ready to go, right?" Kal asked changing the subject.

"About as ready as they'll ever be, but they're not kids anymore, Clark. They've earned our respect just as they've earned the responsibility that comes with the occupation."

Bruce sounded so much like a computer it was unsettling, probably why he and Diana never saw eye to eye: one was an impassioned Amazon warrior and the other an austere vigilante.

"Jaime's sixteen, Cassie's fourteen; La'gaan's still impulsive and aggressive when you don't want him to be, and Tim is just getting used to command."

"Tim has all the attributes needed to be a successful leader. He just needs the right motivation to apply it."

"Forgive me if I'm not as whelmed as you are when it comes to sending people off into the far reaches of space."

"I see you've picked up Dick's vocabulary." Bruce denoted.

"Kinda hard not to when they keep using it."

Kal stared down at Gamma with a hint of sadness etched onto his features. He'd feel better if it were him going and not them; a little sojourn in space might even help a lot in clearing his head. But after the League's trial on Rimbor, he and four others were specifically forbidden from leaving the Milky Way sector - John Stewart was the exception, though, because of his status as a Green Lantern.

Not only that, but Kal had to admit, he thoroughly enjoyed "the kids" company aboard the Watchtower. After they started working here everything seemed to be more...lively.

"You've gotten attached." Bruce pointed out.

 _"Perfect, now he can read minds."_ Kal thought. "How can you not, they're an infectious bunch. Remind me of how I used to be when I was young, dumb, and nothing seemed impossible. Back when everything was a lot easier to understand, at least."

Bruce scowled at that.

Nothing was ever easy for Bruce to understand. Not since before he was twelve, where a thunder crack from a gun changed his worldview and shattered the nest forcing him to fly. Bruce at times wonders if he isn't still falling, truth be told, but even still that's not what frightened him. Falling isn't the scary part, it's the realization that in order to not be a victim, you needed to fall eventually. To feel that danger was a necessary step in learning you can't make it out of the jungle, if you never spread your wings and take a leap of faith.

"We tell ourselves when we're younger the world is easy to understand," Bruce said. "But as we grow, it's bound to become more complicated. Things that don't feel right in the beginning end up becoming necessary in order to make yourself stronger."

"Don't I know it."

Kal could withstand pretty much anything this world could ever throw at him, except for a nice little chat with the Batman. Always had to go introspective on him, can never be just "hey, don't worry, everything will be okay."

A gloved hand went up to rest on Kal's shoulder. "Don't worry. They'll be fine. John and Captain Atom are going with them, and I was also able to rope in Guy Gardner as well, too. Should be more than enough for a simple recon mission."

"Gardner? Really?" Asked Superman. Surprised that Bruce could even talk to John about the hot-blooded Lantern, let alone put him on the mission.

"Said it would earn him some votes come next time League eligibility came up. Can never have too many Lanterns. And if it makes you feel better about that Luthor's methane story, it just proves what you've been saying the entire time: that he's full of shit."

* * *

 **Hangar Bay**

"All right. Seems like you got everything in order." Connor said to Tim as he placed the last container aboard the ship.

"Yep. So far, so good." Tim said with a slight hitch in his voice.

Connor picked up on that and tried to play it off.

"Gotta say, I'm kinda jealous." He said easing Tim's trepidation. "I wasn't leading my own squad until three years after the team was formed."

"You didn't really lead us. More like you punched holes in things and we followed." Added M'gann as she hovered overhead, eyes aglow with green aura as she fitted the last solar panel atop the craft.

"Yeah, but you guys still followed. That counts too, right?"

M'gann flashed a warm smile, which Connor always enjoyed. But it did little to ease the worry shown clearly in Tim's eyes, even through his domino mask.

"It's just, I don't...I wanna make sure I do the right thing, ya know. For everyone." Tim looked over at his teammates in Gamma. "Not just me." Tim said.

Dick told Connor to keep his head around Tim. A good kid with all the traits to be a better Robin Dick ever could be - as admitted by Dick himself. But where Dick had a natural air of confidence about him, spurned by a need to out-do his own mentor, and took to leading the Team when Kaldur left without a hitch in his step, Tim was different. Tim was cautious, calculating and careful. To the point of hesitation, though.

"You will." Connor smiled before giving Tim a slight punch to the shoulder - not enough to hurt, but just enough so Tim could feel it. "And that's so you won't forget it."

Connor knew Tim took his role of Robin very seriously. Not simply because of the responsibility donning the moniker, but because deep down Tim truly believed Batman needed one by his side, and a necessary piece in safeguarding Gotham. Especially considering what happened to -

"I know you're not one for words Connor, but that one really hurt." Tim said rubbing his shoulder.

"Sorry, just can't let you get ahead of yourself." Connor placed a reassuring hand on Tim's shoulder. "You saved the planet, are now dating Wonder Girl, and being trained by the Batman, Tim. Safe to say, I think all the decisions you've made so far have been pretty good ones."

"Connor's right." Said M'gann as she floated down to land right beside Connor. "If there's anyone who's more qualified to be a team leader, it's you. Have confidence in yourself, Tim, because we all do."

Tim smiled at the vote of encouragement from his friends/team leaders. Admittedly it was tough for him when Dick said he'd be taking a slight leave of absence, to recoup in Bludhaven. It was like he lost not only a friend and a mentor, but someone who actually knew what it was like to be the Boy Wonder, show him the proper way. Thankfully, though, M'gann and Connor and Barbara were right there for him. Since the days of the Reach invasion, with their help, Tim felt much more confident every day about taking charge and being a leader.

"Especially me! Whoo-whoo!" Came the energetic statement from a young, blonde-haired girl swooping in to glomp him in a big hug.

And Cassie helped certainly helped, too.

After the routine check ups of the aircraft from Captain Atom and a quick inspection of everyone from John Stewart, Gamma was collected and briefed to the mission objectives. They were all heading out into sector 2261.142.M of the Universe, reconnaissance to the last known location of Vandal Savage. A few months prior, Barbara Gordon - Batgirl - had picked up molecular traces of Savages DNA left behind in space, which could have only been left there through Zeta beam travel. The Green Lantern known as Mogo, that sector's lone sentinel, corroborated her findings with a poignant message relayed to the League simply reading, "Disturbance."

Captain Atom addressed the team: "Savage was kind enough to leave us a trail of bread crumbs through space, everyone, and now it's up to us to follow. The War World may look like an advanced piece of alien technology geared specifically to destroy planets, but it's not. It runs on the same stuff your mom and dad put in their cars to get to work everyday. And if there's one thing gasoline loves to do, it's leak. Every time its rockets jump through space, it leaves behind a gas trail. Batgirl has pinpointed that trail. With her data projection and from what Green Lantern Mogo has so far confirmed, we have reason to think Savage slipped with the War World into uncharted space beyond Guardian observation. Turning this into a veritable fox hunt."

Captain Atom walked over to a console and pressed a button bringing up a detailed holographic map of the universe, denoting where the Milky Way Galaxy was and where Savage seemed to be. A metallic alloyed arm pointed out to a spot located with a flashing red triangle.

"We're tasked with a simple job: investigate Savage's trail and figure where that fox went a runnin', people." Atom said.

"So we're playing a game of hide-and-seek with Vandal Savage and we're 'it', huh? Sounds simple." Asked Jaime Reyes aka Blue Beetle. "What?" he said addressing the Scarab, a piece of Reach technology embedded on his back.

"No," Jaime said, "I'm not asking that...No, dude!...He does not live in a greenhouse because he's a Green Lantern!"

*Ahem*

Jaime was snapped from his mental debate with the Scarab by John Stewart, who looked less than thrilled the Scarab had jokes to crack at his expense.

"Can we focus here, Jaime?" He asked.

Jaimie stood board stiff at mention of his name from his childhood idol. "Y-Yes, sir, Mr. John Lantern, sir. I mean, GL. I-I mean, John Stewart. Whose name is Green Lantern. I mean - wait! No. Other way around. Yeah. And who's sometimes called 'GL' by friends. Not saying we're friends. Of course not. We barely know each other. But like, not that we can't be friends in the future and..." Jaimie stopped himself. Realizing saying any more might commit him to being institutionalized, or worse, kicked off the mission.

"I'ma stop now."

"Good." _"This is gonna be a long trip."_ John thought to himself.

"Lovely." La'gann voiced out discourteously. "So trekking across space to find this Savage. Neptune's Beard! How exasperatingly titillating." He said sarcastically. It received him a sharp elbow to the ribs from Cassie.

"Just because the mission is 'simple' Lagoon Boy, does not make it 'safe'." John addressed. "Mogo's sector is one of the most vacant in space. Besides him, there's not a single habitable planet, social watering hole or 'mom's basement' for the bad guys to hang out in for light years around. Which makes Vandal going there all the stranger and all the more reason why myself, Captain Atom, and -."

Suddenly John was cut off by a surge of green light flying right by the hangar bay window. Gamma turned to look and see who or what the darting green streak could be, until it stopped revealing a man in a vibrant leather vest, red crew cut, and a charmingly smug smile which basically said "I'm the best, ho-yeah!" to any passerby.

"Whooooooo-Hoooooo!" He yelled before zipping on past.

The slap of John's hand across his face could be heard all the way at the top of the Watchtower.

"And Guy Gardner - God help us all - are going with you."

"How is he able to scream in space like that if there's no air?" Tim asked perplexedly.

"The universe is full of unanswerable questions son, both mystifying and horrifying to comprehend. He's one of'em." John replied.

"As for the answerable questions, anyone got any?" Atom asked the group getting their focus back on track.

No raised hands, no words, just a tense feeling of readiness emanated off Gamma. Mission prep for Savage's hunt had begun months ago when Batgirl had first brought them evidence of Vandal's presence in the outer reaches. Now, they would finally be set loose and get to the bottom of this mystery. Everyone's eyes had been on Luthor, who was becoming a public commodity by the day, but Vandal essentially turned into a ghost when the Reach left. A mystery who's eerie silence left most Leaguers with an unsettling anxiousness. Hopefully this mission will put some of that to ease.

"Very well, then." Atom finished off by shutting down the hologram and nodding his head towards the sleekly built, coal black, Valkyrie space-jet courtesy from Star Labs. "Gamma, let's get hunting."

* * *

The Valkyrie hovered into space as the air lock doors to the Watchtower opened. It's nose creeping out into the airless vacuum slowly, tentatively, like a bloodhound prepping itself to catch a scent. Connor had to admit, even though he still wished he could fly on his own, the new League spacecraft looked damn near pretty. Small but powerful looking, fast and agile, perfect for sub-orbit travel and deep space exploration. The best Star could offer them.

The powerful jets primed themselves to get kick started with an deep orange glow which slowly grew hotter, brighter, until the countdown reached "0". A long jet of flame lurched out the back-end of the jet propelling it forward, until its speed bent its nose, elongated the body, stretched it tight and thin as it dipped into the slipstream and vanished.

"Good luck, guys." Connor said witnessing the departure of his friends from the starboard window.

At this moment when he was staring into the inky black recesses of space, did the stark realization come that 'The Team', i.e. the closest thing he'd ever considered a family since crawling from his pod was suddenly being pulled apart. Kaldur had mostly been away since the the days of the Invasion, taking on on his role as ambassador for young supers around the world seriously, organizing into quick-response teams for whenever the League would have us for them; he just got done placing three teams including Artemis, Virgil, Bart, Mal and Karen in California. Dick was gone, Gamma just flew off into space for who knows how long, and now it was only M'gann, Garfield and him biding their time. And that's what sucked even more: waiting to act when all's you wanted, needed, was something to do. Hell, lifting things up and putting them down in the Valkyrie was the heaviest labor he'd done since July.

"You're so cute when you try to act the big brother type." M'gann pointed out, bumping into Connor's shoulder.

"Tim needs a pep talk every now and then." Connor smirked, feeling at ease with M'gann's presence. "What about you and La'gann? Saw you talking to him before in the hangar. Should I be worried?"

"No, he was just asking me how space was. Ya know, being Atlantean and all, this can be pretty daunting." M'gann said waving her hand out the window. "I told him it was like the ocean - just bigger."

"About as far away a fish can be out of water, huh?"

"Too far for him. He was testier than usual." M'gann said with concern.

"How can you tell?"

"Oh, you are bad." M'gann turned to face Connor and sidle up to him, bringing her hands up to rub his muscular arms. Her smile could almost always brighten his mood, and he did smile back as well as he could, but it wasn't convincing enough for her and she didn't need to read his mind to notice.

"Nothing hurts more than being separated from the people you're close with, Connor. Trust me, I know the feeling. But this day was going to come eventually. It's just what being a part of the League means. Everyone has to be ready for this - 'needs' to be - to do their part. We all have our responsibilities now, but have a little faith and courage. We won't be a part always. Growing up doesn't necessarily mean growing apart."

He could understand that even if it didn't really resonate with him. Maybe it was the lack of growing that's always bothered Connor, as he saw everyone else change over time, he stayed the same. He once remembered how Wendy Harris cornered him for his birthday once, told him how he hadn't looked like he changed at all since their time in high school. She may have meant it as a complement, but for Connor it was uncomfortable because it was true: he hadn't changed. She did. Marvin changed. Mal, Karen, even M'gann gave herself a more mature look over the years. For Connor growing up did mean growing apart, because he would always be stuck in the past while everyone else moved into tomorrow.

"I know. You're right, we won't." Connor pulled M'gann close to him and smiled at her warmth. At least for right now she was still here with him, right now, and put his mind at ease.

* * *

 **Lighthouse, San Emilia Bay**

 **17:00 PDT**

The door leading into their new abode creaked louder than a sixty-three year old's arthritic knees. Cracking, popping, and snapping all the way as Kaldor pushed with a good amount of strength. Inside had the same kind of air a mausoleum had right before they put the body in the wall. As Beta entered, a motion-sensor hall light flicked on, casting off a dim glow revealing a cold hallway which extending twenty feet before it took a sharp left.

"Its got that same creeping feeling you get watching a horror movie and the killer is right behind the hot chick." Bart Allen looked more upset as Kaldur lead them further into their new secret lair.

"It is not all bad." The Atlantean said, but Bart quirked his eyebrows up. "I'll be the judge of that."

He sped off in a yellow blur faster than you could say "skidoosh" - another future word he dropped on his teammates. It took just two seconds before he came back and gave a disapproving look to Kaldur. "Yeah, no, this place is mostly bad. Oh and f.y.i. to everyone, totally call top bunk in the room below the teleporter. "

"There was a teleporter?!" Virgil and said incredulously, dropping his manhole cover indignantly in the hallway.

Kaldur led Beta down the hall and they followed. Pipes ran along the length of the hallway, drips of water finding ways through the cracks left by time and rust. Beta was doubtful the scenery could get any better, but as Kaldur turned the left, they were met by a large room. A large space to the right side dropped down a step to what only could be a living room. Two doors were set far apart from each other on either side of that wall, while to the left was a cluttered kitchen with stainless steel appliances and stacked cardboard boxes.

"Well at least it's got a living room." Mal glanced at the dingy walls.

"Bunker! I knew it. I can tell the look of one when I see it. This chodes the mode even more than it did before. And the food stinks, too! No Chicken Wizzies." Bart used his speed to already plunder the boxes of food for anything good. And lo and behold, there was nothing. Save the usual stuff one would find in a "How To" Cold War instructional video for surviving a nuclear holocaust.

"C'mon guys it's not like Mount Justice looked warm and comfy all the time. This place just needs some - " Karen dragged a finger across the steel kitchen counter which revealed a disgusting amount of dust. "- 'A lot' of living in for us to get used to this.

"I don't know if any amount of living here is gonna get me used to this place." Said Virgil.

"Bunker, huh?" The words escaped Artemis's mouth before she could reel them in again. She wasn't in the mood for talking, but if she was going to be shacked up here she might as well know a few of the perks. Perks being defensive capabilites, radar nets, lazer tracking. The usual things that can make a young woman safe. "How safe is this place if we're going to make it into our own little Hobbit hole, then?"

"I'll show you. Come." Kaldur proceeded up the staircase which most unfortunately did not lead to heaven. Just more dark rooms desperately needing some touches of hospitality.

The first floor was nothing but an empty space, one door positioned at it's far side. Second floor was all cleared with no rooms, but a massive floor. An orange burst of light lapped against the walls as one side had encircling windows allowing for the setting sun to come in. Artemis had to admit, this room looked pretty cool and inviting. Virgil looked on wide-eyed with awe and Karen seemed pleased. A beautiful view of the city of El Rey and it's Santa Emilia Bay greeted them, along with a sight of the expansive Manifest Destiny Brdge in the distance. Bart didn't look like this mattered. As far as he was concerned, the overtly pretty view in front of him, just the empty room of nothingness.

Kaldur went about explaining how things would look better once they got their own belongings here and cozied up, but Artemis wasn't having that. An answering machine sounded more lively than Kaldur did at the moment. Even if he tried his best, every word sounded as if it came straight from a memorized queue card. "This tower has five levels. The first one is obviously the common room and kitchen, with two doors on the far side. The left one leads down into an armory area for the jetboat, spare generator and gym."

"Jetboat? Now that sounds choice." said Bart, ears picking up at the mention of "jet' and "boat" put together; fast moving vehicles always seem to excite young teens, even ones who had super-speed.

"The next three levels are standard living quarters, with the fourth being an observation deck. They come with automated shades if you ever get tired of the sun staring at you. And finally..."

Now, the team prepared for many situations, had fought against aliens and used their technology once or twice in the past. Because in this line of work, nothing was ordinary or unexpected.

A collection of oooohhhhs and aaaahhhhs escaped Beta Squad as they took in the holographic map of El Rey City in the center and the many state of the art consoles lining all around the circular walls. Artemis spied sonar, radar, other machines which probably had "ar's" at the end of them; a League tracker used to call any JL member when needed, a police monitor, what looked to be a miniaturized chem lab to their left (but of course, something of which whose power far acceded anything not found inside a CDC), a rejuvenation pod, and a giant transporter pointing out towards the sea.

The rest of the lighthouse/doom bunker may not have been the most well taken care of, but the top was certainly well taken care of long before they got here.

"At least the league made sure this was all set for us." She thought taking everything in.

"Your command center," Kaldur waved his hand, collapsing the city of El Rey to bring up a blueprint of the light house. "The lighthouse is five levels of solid concrete with an underlay of steel mesh. Motion detectors are placed everywhere within a five mile radius of the inlet, including on the sea bed when low tide hits. They have a range of 90 km, so no surprises."

Beta spread themselves and inspected their new tools. Virgil and Bart were more curious at the flashing blue buttons and shiny metal objects, but Mal and Karen were quick to see if anything was out of place: checking for enough med-gels, spying loose wires, seeing if everything was up-to-date.

"If any situation arises, you will have constant access to the League." Kaldur said setting the teleporter online. "There's a secure channel encrypted with a five cell firewall so no one will ever get a bead of your messages or location. The lighthouse is solar powered and automated, so there is absolutely no reason for anyone to be here other than you. For the most part, you will be alone. Save for a League appointed hero who will be your liaison to El Rey."

That caught Beta by surprise. A liaison? For what? Didn't they outgrow the need for a den mother since the days Mount Justice was destroyed? Granted Virgil and Bart were young, but Artemis, Mal and Karen were young adults able to care for them and themselves if needed. What Kaldur said only seemed to hammer home the idea the League still didn't fully trust them to operate alone, still being viewed as inexperienced and unpredictable kids in the field.

"Liaison? Kaldur, man, are you serious?" Mal voiced out.

"I am."

"I thought we outgrew the need for babysitters?" Karen voiced.

"He's not a babysitter." Kaldur tried to reign in his teammates discontent. "He's a well-known hero in El Rey, who's soon becoming a viable option for League membershi -

"Kaldur." Artemis's voice stopped him before he could continue. A steely glance almost as indomitable as the under-lay coating of the lighthouse stared at him. Not questioningly, but accusingly. That was rough. It wasn't long ago when Artemis was the only other person he could trust having his back on Manta's sub. And being in such a precarious position together, strengthened their friendship and respect for one another's abilities.

She was his right hand - not because she easily blended in; the glamour charm took care of that, and besides, Miss Martian's shape shifting ability could've been more the apt for that job - but because Kaldur had indeed chosen her personally. She was good at what she does, and Kaldur and Dick ascertained that a long time ago Artemis above anyone else here deserved respect. But still, they have have the luxury to complain while Kaldur doesn't. He sighed. He thinks he can now understand why Dick wanted to take a breather from command; it was a daunting exercise of patience which Kaldur was fast running out of. Being a leader sometimes required sacrificing the virtue of patience for decisive action

Kaldur turned to address Beta.

"I understand this isn't what you all were expecting," Kaldur reasoned. "Trust me, splitting the teams up like this wasn't my idea in the first place, but it was mine asking for aid. This is not an issue of respect, because you have it - from both the League and myself. I'm sorry if you feel slighted, but don't take for granted how terribly thin we are. There is too much at stake to lose for us to be petty, and we need all the help we can get."

No one wished to argue with Kaldur then, turning from friend to leader in an instant; Artemis respected that in him, even though everyone else chaffed at his austere attitude at times. But she knew he was having a hard go at this. Evidenced by the dark circles under his eyes and apparent sluggishness. "You need a break, Kaldur. Bad." she thought as he went over to the teleporter's console and punched in coordinates.

"Well," began Artemis as she went closer to the teleporter, "If we're getting a new RA, mind telling us who he is?"

"He's been the main super patrolling El Rey and the Treasure Coast area for five years." Kaldur pressed a button and a spinning wheel of electricity and light spun It was followed by a flash of white light. "He's a bit...eccentric." Kaldur continued. "But I wouldn't worry too much. His records and their impeccable. He is a well-known member of the city and well-respected. To have him aboard makes for the perfect sponsor and guide for you all."

They covered their eyes due to the blinding light, the engine of the teleporter churning as it processed the oncoming transfer of Zeta beams. A tall shadow, broad and imposing, started to emerge, getting closer with a measured gait denoting power. Everyone wondered who he was and what kind of city could breed such a daunting presence. And in the same automated voice Beta heard many a time at Mount Justice, the Computer called out the designation number "A27..."

With anticipation Beta waited. Even Artemis too was curious. Unfortunately, what they got was a little less spectacular and more confusing upon realizing they had no idea who the blue and gold suited crusader with the goggles even was. The Computer helped them out by giving Beta a name to work with "Michael Jon Carter...", but still.

"Who?" Karen said perplexed.

"Wait, 'Jon Carter'? The guy from Mars? I thought he was just a story?" Mal said confused.

"I had to read that book in middle school. Never did." Virgil added.

"...Booster Gold." Came the voice of the Computer. Followed by question marks appearing over everyone's heads.

"Booster Gold?" Artemis said sizing the man up. He was certainly tall, but not as imposing or muscular as his shadow would lead to believe. He was fit, and though Artemis kicked herself for it, admittedly handsome with his beach blonde hair, chiseled features hidden behind golden goggles, and unnaturally white smile. But it was a shallow kind of appreciation she had for him, like something a schoolgirl expressed fantasizing their perfect guy while looking at a Ken doll. It was plastic, a perfect description for the dude in front of them retrofitted into a superhero outfit.

"Hello, plebs," he said smugly. "Booster Gold here. Pleasure is all yours."

* * *

 **Ouskirts of San Emilia Bay, El Rey**

 **17:15**

A sad-looking creature scuttled awkwardly across the coral steps leading to the rocky throne, a beacon flashing in his clawed grasp. Numerous warriors chuckled at Crack's obvious limp and shell - once a vibrant red, now stained with age, bird-shit and signs of his reckless coke addiction. Yes, ironic a crab named "crack" also had a crack addiction. Amazing? Not really. Not when you consider how many idiots dump drugs into the ocean when hightailing it from cops. So what was Crack supposed to do then? He had to do them, lest they pollute the oceanic ecosystem. For goodness sake, he was doing a service for the betterment of his kind. He was like Aquaman in that regard: a hero. A crack addicted, poo-shelled, limping hero. He should be part of the Justice League!

But no! He's here. The smallest and most insignificant bottom-feeder in the midst of a court of muscle-bound douches, walking in a way only fit for fat kids doing relay races so they can lose weight. "Haha! So funny! I'm walking like a crab!" They would chortle.

No it's not fucking funny! It's the worst, goddammit! It was a stupid and ridiculous method of motion which was somehow the penultimate level of evolution for Crack's species. If there is a God somewhere floating up in that nightclub in the clouds, and if by chance he was ever eligible to get in, he'd grab that old man by his flowing beard, bring him up close to his face, and utter: You. Son. Of. A. Bitch!

...Crack might've taken a bit of coke right before he came to meet with his master. Just a little. Only to lessen his anxiety.

His claws scratched up to the throne where his master - the grand daddy-o of the ocean flow, who penetrates so deep his dick reaches the bottom of the ocean flo' - sat hidden behind a shroud of colorful, schooling fish.

"M-Master! Master! Is it time? Is it time?" Crack asked waving the small contraption with agitated excitement.

"Oh it's time, Crack: time to get it on," replied the shadowed figure on the throne, it's massive build moving to stand. "Procrastination is like masturbation, it's all good and fun until you realize you are only fucking yourself."

A fist raised high dispelling the fish and causing the horde of warriors to shout their approval, clawed and scaled fists risen with anticipation and battle-hunger.

"Heed the call, my warriors. El Rey is ours!" The shadow yelled. "The Kingdom's a comin' and it's a comin hard and fast! So I's got one question for ya,: Can you dig it?"

"Yaaaaa!" Came the roar of his army.

"Can you dig it!" The shadow asked again.

"Yaaaaaaaa!" They roared again.

"Can. You. DIG IIIIITTTTTTT!"

The ocean erupted in a cacophony of cheers and whoops and hollers as the army began its march towards conquest. The shadow king smiled a grizzly flash of dagger like teeth akin to shark's, and Crack cursed that his stupid crab-walking wouldn't get him nearly so far away as he wished. The doldrums of the sea had been stirred causing a tidal wave to build, headed straight for the city of El Rey and the world of the surface.

On the surface, for those air-breathers, Light might be a necessity for life, but under the sea? Hmph! Under the sea there were places that barely saw light and yet life goes on in that darkness. Light wasn't a necessity, it was a luxury.


	3. Welcome to the Jungle Pt II

**The Lighthouse, El Rey**

 **17:15 PDT  
**

"Everyone," Kaldur addressed Beta, "I'd like you to meet Booster Gold. You're new League-sponsored supervisor."

Booster nonchalantly moved passed Kaldur and struck a pose in the center of the room, "Greetings my fellow crusaders. I know, I know. Not all at once. Please. I get it. It must be an honor for you all to be working alongside a hero like me. But no worries, I want to emphasize that 'yes' I indeed have remembered my pen for autographs."

"Is that other Green Lantern?" Bart asked turning to Virgil. "The one that HJ and J. Stew are always iffy about joining the League?"

"I don't know. He's kinda got an outfit like them, but it's all gold." Virgil shrugged.

Booster became a little irked at the comment.

"Well of course it's gold; I'm Booster Gold. Paving the way in El Rey for justice." Booster made sure to rhyme; kids loved rhymes. "Also, seriously, wouldn't my suit be Green if I was indeed 'Green Lantern'."

Bart dashed towards Booster and whirlwinded around him, screeching to a halt back to where he stood. "Hmmmm, true," he turned towards Virgil. "But still dubious."

Mal moved to offer a hand to Booster. "Booster Gold, huh? Cool name. I'm Guardian. I'm guessing you'd wanna know who the rest of us are are?"

"Not necessary, my muscular muchacho." Booster held up a hand to Mal's face. "Booster Gold always makes sure he knows the people he's working with."

Leaning over Mal's figure he named off everyone from Beta without a problem. Even addressing Artemis by her Tigress name, too, which made her more than a little edgy.

"Booster Gold has already been prepped as to who you are and you're strengths." Kaldur noted as soon as he picked Artemis's disgruntlement.

"And weaknesses, too." He added matter of factly.

Now Artemis's antennas were absolutely wired. Everyone's eyes quirked with confusion at the candor Gold had just spoken that last statement.

"Makes it easier for me to protect you guys." He said oblivious to Beta's discomfort.

"Excuse me?" Artemis put her hands on her hips and stared daggers at the man. "Uhhhhh no offense here 'Booster', but we kind of know how to take care of ourselves. Comes with the territory of being a League member."

"Oooohhhh, that had to sting." Quipped Bart behind her, but Gold never lost his composure.

Booster Gold moved in front of Artemis, looming over her like a great big cloud; he might not have been as burly as they thought, but he was certainly tall, evidenced when Beta noticed he stood a few inches taller than Mal. He stared her down past those gold tinted goggles never losing that smile.

"Artemis Crock, formerly aka Artemis with Green Arrow, currently aka Tigress solo. Daughter of Lawrence and Paula Crock aka Sportsmaster and Huntress; one former rogue, one currently still active. Strengths include marksmanship, skilled martial artistry, heightened human conditioning, and possessor of a banging body. Weaknesses: temperament..."

Artemis didn't know when she lost control - either at the mention of her parents or the '"banging body" part. Her fists clenched so hard audible pops were heard as her knuckles cracked under pressure. Then she went blind. One second she was staring at the world's most cock-eating smirk ever as, the next she stared at nothing because her fist flew right into that perfect smile. Cracking Gold square in the face and sending him hobbling into the holo-console, where the diagram of El Rey and its surrounding came back into view. Save for one added thing: a beeping, red mass seemingly making its way up the bay.

No one else took notice of the danger save for Karen.

"Uh, guys?" She said in a halfhearted attempt at relaying attention to the console, but Artemis was tough; once she got going it was difficult to curb her.

" 'Booster Gold' aka dickhead. Strengths: making good impressions; weaknesses: lack of paying attention to my fist as opposed to my body." Artemis said rubbing the knuckles on her right hand.

Booster rubbed his cheek as a small trail of blood left his mouth from a cut lip. "Yep, I was right about the 'martial artistry' part."

"Guys?" Karen said again moving closer towards the hologram.

"The hell is that?" Mal said joining her wondering at the red mass of dots.

Artemis made a move to land another haymaker to Booster's jaw which she so hoped was made of glass, until Kaldur moved to stop her.

"That's enough, Artemis." But Artemis wasn't dismayed, rounding on Kaldur next.

"Please tell me this is a joke. How can any of us expect him to watch out for our well-being, when he can't even watch out for what he says. To hell with his impeccable record. I absolutely, 110%, refuse to believe 'this' is the guy 'you' chose to supervise us, Kaldur."

"Artemis relax!" Kaldur moved to get in between Artemis who was adamant in cornering Booster who calmly watched from behind.

"It's massive, and moving right for the city." Mal said stunned.

" 'Massive' and 'moving right for the city' usually aren't good signs." Karen noted. "Guy's, hello? Can we focus here, please?"

"Relax? You're kidding? If you think this boob has got anything worth telling me, you're about as dense as he is. I can learn the ins-and-outs of this city on my own without Gold Bond's help." Artemis tugged her fist away from Kaldur's Atlantean enhanced grip, which he was surprised to see she wrestled out of. "If he stays, I walk, Kaldur. Simple as that"

Kaldur and Artemis stared at each other for what seemed like an interminable amount of time, neither backing down in spite of Kaldur's past speech about 'not being petty'. Pfft, piss on that, was what Artemis thought to herself as she saw Booster Gold, standing innocently in the back checking his smile from a mirror pulled from his wrist guard. Probably checking if his perfect smile stayed perfect for the cameras. Whatever this ass's qualifications are were as a hero were probably as fake as - "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT BEEPING FOR!" Artemis yelled over at Mal and Karen.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you, Tigress! Reel in your claws and focus, girl, cuz this isn't looking kosher." Karen said addressing the large mass of red pooled up inside the bay.

Kaldur moved away from Artemis and over to the console, scanned the Bay and magnified its location to ascertain the threat. Heat readings came up negative as signatures denoted nothing there, but the radar relays and sonar from the Lighthouse confirmed a large gathering just below the surface of the water. If this attack was part of a Light agenda, Kaldur feared, then that wouldn't look good at all; not even less than a day here and they were were already compromised. Didn't bode well for them at all.

"Whatever these things are, they're moving right towards El Rey's downtown. The beach and boardwalk are at risk, but there's a highway smack dab in the middle of it all running the outskirts. And it's rush hour. Meaning the entire thing will be packed." Karen notified.

"Dang. I see more red here than on my paper about the French Revolution." Virgil said.

"It's probably just Red Belly and his semen attacking the city again?" Booster Gold said in an informed tone.

Nearly everyone turned with confusion and disgust as they looked at him, but he didn't pay them any heed; he was too busy applying a healing balm to his lip to stem its swelling."Sea. Men. I know I said that in a deceivingly comical way, but no, they're actually called Sea-Men. Usual occurrence here. No biggie. I've handled them in the past." Said Booster as he puckered his lips and smacked them together.

"Does this many constitute a 'usual occurrence'?" Mal asked Booster Gold. With his lips still puckered, Booster turned his attention towards the map. Some might've noticed the gold blanch a little at spying the number, sensing the magnitude of the situation, making his goofy expression all the more ridiculous. It might've been fear which caused his sudden pause, lack of machismo stifled by the internal screaming of a little girl, a paralyzing realization of maybe his over-indulgent attempts of aggrandizement could be all for naught...

Until Booster let loose a long and hissey "Pssshhhhhhhhhh!"

"That? That's nothing, my peerless peeps. Booster Gold deals with numbers tripling this paltry party periodically." Booster jumped onto the console and struck a pose, the lines of the El Rey city hologram navigating around contours of his body. "Per diem it is a fight for survival in the city streets of El Rey, but as long as the moon falls and the sun rises on this jungle, my friends, justice will shine ever on. And that is a Booster Gold guarantee."

It would've looked somewhat cool if maybe the red dots hadn't all amassed generally around his crotch, though.

"I'm getting suited up. Everyone?" Artemis said irreverently and turned form the Golden douche still maintaining his Captain Morgan on the console.

Beta squad all hustled for their gear and costumes and Bart Allen fist-pumped with obvious glee. "Sweetness! Not one hour and we're already saving the world - Anything to get out of this dump. El Rey get ready to check me out! Can we use the jet-boat, though? Can we? Please?"

"That made me feel embarrassed? Did anyone else catch that?" Virgil

A part of Kaldur thanked the timing for this event; if they ever needed a team building exercise, saving a city would be a good start. Blowing off steam, too, was pretty important considering the way Booster Gold acted. He never thought he would have to stop Artemis from committing first-degree on the first day, but after looking at Gold keeping his pose like one of those robot street performers, he understood.

"Booster Gold?...Booster Gold?" Kaldur knocked Booster back to Earth.

"Whoa, huh, wha?"

"The situation? The Sea-Men attacking? Recall?"

"Of course I do," he said jumping off the console. "They're nothing. No trouble at all. Bunch of muscle bound fish that need disciplining."

"Perhaps it is time for you to prove your worth to the team by helping us. Await for us in the teleporter and we'll be on our way."

"Oh! Uh, yeah, sounds like a great idea. But ya know, with the whole 'you hiding from the government and all', my publicist says I really shouldn't be seen with you - like not all the time. A nice, healthy distance should be respected. So, I'll go on ahead. M'kay. Clear the way for ya, make sure no unwanted attention goes your way. Aaaaannnnnnddddd...stuff. Savvy?"

"Very well. Send us the Zeta Beam coordinates for your designation and we'll meet you on the front-lines."

"Yeah while I got sucker punched I already input the coordinates in the console. Zeta teleportation thingy should be all set."

Kaldur sighed. He couldn't understand why Batman entrusted Booster to be Beta's guide. Batman knows everything about everyone; he makes no mistakes. Surely he had to have known Gold's attitude beforehand, so what gives?

There positively had to be someone more qualified in El Rey to lead Beta than this man. There had to be. If not, then what was Batman's game here. Kaldur's earlier qualms about placing trust with the right people suddenly resurfaced and he felt a little more uneasy at the realization Batman might be up to something. Dick had obviously learned his utilitarian tendencies from someone, the tactically austere rationale of using everyone as pieces for a grander scheme. As Kaldur went to prep himself, he made a note of when he returned to the Watchtower, he and Batman were going to have a discussion.

* * *

 **On-Ramp to I-96; Badly Painted Van, El Rey**

 **17:20 PDT**

No matter how smooth the stylings of Sarah Mclachlan's voice were, or how many times that friggin hula-hooped plastic woman shook her damn hips, nothing could ease Hunter's mind. He was going to be late, and his lazy procrastinating behind put him right smack in the middle of rush hour on the freeway. It was the single most debilitating occurrence in an everyday American's life. Right next to Thanksgiving meal and listening to G. Gordon Godfrey roll his r's.

"Aw, dude, c'moooon." Hunter beeped at the white Fonda Accord in front of him. He knew that wasn't going to make it or the traffic move any faster. When did it ever? But at least it made him feel somewhat better.

"She was giving you the gap, man." He said waving his hand for the Accord to go. "Seize the gap. Carpe seize gap. 'I came, I saw, I seize gap!'... Fine! Fuck you then, shit!"

The Accord didn't seize the gap. Letting the other person pass and relegating Hunter and his horribly painted van in a horrible spot while time was horribly slipping away.

On a good day making it to the school was only twenty minutes. Now? Try looking at forty. Forty! God how hated this. Waiting in rush hour was like taking all the fun of waiting at the DMV and putting it your own personalized cubicle on the road.

"Dooks!" He slammed his right hand down on the steering wheel and causing it to beep again and his Toro can to crush; he payed no mind to the snarling wolf insignia on his gauntlet staring back at him, begging for his attention, positively waiting for Hunter to just say "Fuck it" and give in. But Hunter Windstar didn't. Not because of fear, not because of wanting to keep a low-key, but because his hungover brain still was set to stun and didn't wake up yet. Even with the Toro in his system.

"Holy Moses! Stop hesitating!" He yelled at the Accord who let another car go by; now other cars were starting to beep at hunter, and he also heard someone call "Move that crappy van!"

"It's not me! It's not me! Shut up!" Hunter said peeking his head out the window. He beeped his horn again at the Fonda, but all he got from the person ahead was a shrug of confusion. "Do you enjoy this?" Hunter screamed at the man. "Are you enjoying yourself! Are you not entertained?!"

As Hunter continued his berating of the uncaring - and perhaps slightly tone deaf - owner of the white, 2006, Fonda Accord, he didn't hear Sarah Mclachlan's voice be interrupted by a special highway report. It eased a slight warning for all drivers in the downtown area. Nothing too serious, just a precautionary message relayed to curb panic. A large company of what appears to be Sea-Men are gathering inside the San Emilia Bay limits. All those wishing to stay clear from the imminent showdown between them and Booster Gold are expected to -

"Whatever!" Hunter said throwing himself into his seat. He shook his head disbelievingly, lost at how one stupid person could ever make him want to punch them so hard in their stupid, fat, ignorant, Accord-owning face.

He knew he had to calm down. Opening his dash and searching for his mix tape, he totally didn't give a crap what the talking radio had to say as he plopped the cassette into the mechanical mouth. Hunter looked at the time: . Well, wasn't too bad. Still enough time...Maybe...Hopefully...He had no idea. He just needed to listen to some music to put him at ease.

The guitar riff hit as soon as he put his head back against the seat. Nothing to do now but wait unfortunately. Wait for either the damn song to end or the "Stupid frackin' car to move! Come on!"

* * *

 **San Emilia Bay**

 **17:27 PDT**

"Move it! Run! Get out of here, people, hustle!" Came the grizzled police sergeant with the bullhorn. "Do you wanna be around when these freaks come. Come on, move! Leave this to the real heroes, will ya!"

At first people didn't know what to make of the few bopping shapes adrift in the middle of the bay. Indifference surmised them to be a gaggle of sea birds resting along the bay's current, but that turned to heightened fear as abhorrent fish-like heads with passionless, yellow eyes came closer with the ebb and flow of the current. A nice stroll along the expansive length of El Rey's beach and boardwalk changed into a cattle drive as civilians were escorted by the numerous police officers and SWAT members who answered the call.

"Get those people outta there and set up barricades from Cortez down to Gadsden avenue and the I-96 on-ramp. The downtown area is gonna be tighter than a nun's ass up but I don't care! Everything needs to get cleared until Booster Gold arrives. So clear the streets and make sure no one's left behind. Set up firing lines on every street..."

The sergeant continued to bellow out orders to his men as they rushed to get into position. Cars and armored SUV's were set up to form makeshift barriers on every street to stem the Sea-Men advance. This was watched with as much glee as a child who peers down at his ant farm by the largest of the Sea-Men - their king and sire.

"Hehe, hey Crack?" Chuckled the gargantuan behemoth to the small crab-mutant perched on his shoulder, "What do humans and police cars have in common?'

"Wh-What, sire?" Crack said as one he tried coaxing one of his eye stocks to stay upright; it was a lazy eye and the surface never seemed to agree with it.

"Red Belly? Is that you again?" Called the police chief. "We know your game but you're not gonna have any luck this day. We've already got all avenues blocked, so why don't you take you and your boys and turn around." Guns were primed over towards the oncoming line of Sea-Men wading onto shore. All of them wore no armor save for the scales they were born with and the muscles they honed through Atkins, underwater Cross Fit training, and consuming whey protein left behind by body-builders on the beach.

The King of the Sea-Men, the one whom the police chief referred to as Red Belly, named so for the voracious red color of his stomach, stood tall in the surf with his coral crown and billowing robe of sea-weed flaying out behind him. "What they have in common, Crack, is that they both make noises to let you know they're coming."

"Eh?...Oh! Ohohoho, yes! Yes, very good, Master. Very go-blah!" Crack was silenced as one of Red Belly's massive, steer skull, sized fists clamped down on him.

"Enough! No more molly coddling. I aint one for foreplay, so I'm thinking of just a quickie." Red Belly raised his fist with Crack on full display, so all his Sea-Men saw and rallied to him. "Are you hungry, boys?! Who wants some meat!"

"Yaaaah!" Came a raucous cry from the ranks.

"Ohhhhhhhhh, yyyyyyyeaaaaaahhhhhh!" Red Belly forwarded his command as he urged the ranks forward.

They came with surprising speed in spite of their aquatic upbringing, finding walking on land to be just as easy as schooling in the ocean current. And as Sea-Men poured up the shoreline in a mad dash, police lines opened fire, blinking small flares of molten lead at them. Many Sea-Men were felled by the opening volley, but they came hard and fast, persistently squirming uphill, diabolical pleasure painted across their faces.

* * *

Electricity ignited the ground and surged along the alleyway, rivulets of power cutting the walls of the building as a flash of light dropped Beta right into a dumpster. The lid was roughly tossed open as Artemis's tiger mask and blonde hair appeared over the trash.

"What a turd!" Artemis screamed before hopping down. "He put the Zeta Beam designation in a dumpster! And I see he hasn't taken the dumpster dive with us, either. Perfect!"

The rest of Beta emerged none the worse for wear, considering they all landed on top of someone's thrown away Chinese food from "Angry Dragon's Tea House?...Lovely." Karen said as Mal helped her.

"Viable option for a date night, perhaps." Mal replied behind his golden helmet.

"If it doesn't smell like garbage, I'm game."

"All I'm saying is, what's the point of having a jetboat if we're not even going to use it?" Bart Allen complained as the rest of Beta squad stepped from Zeta particle residue and garbage. "It's not for fun, I know, but between getting beamed into garbage or that? I don't know, mighta chosen the boat."

"Kid!" Kaldur had to reinforce the only other voice now needed to be heard was his.

Bart immediately zipped his mouth.

Kaldur checked the coordinates on his wristguard. "We're at the cross section of Villalobos and Central. Booster Gold's signal is coming one hundred yards -

" - Due west from here." Said Virgil.

The cracking pop of guns in the air. Kaldur looked at Virgil with a curious look. The boy simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Gangs were a problem in my neighborhood. If you heard a gunshot, best get running in the opposite direction."

Dakota City had been a part of Virgil's life far longer than his time with the Team, so his skills had obviously been honed there first. Before his time with meta powers, Virgil had been a kid brought up by good people in a rough neighborhood, who taught him things which were necessary to survive. And one good thing about growing up on the streets is, if you survive, you end up learning things other people don't.

"Being a hero sometimes requires us to move ahead into danger, Static. Come on, Beta. We move. Now!"

* * *

"Man these things are ugly!" Cried one cop as he poured bullet after bullet into the horde of fish-scaled minions.

"Damn straight!" Responded his partner.

And indeed they were. Many primarily looked different species of salmon, with hooked beaks bent over a bottom jaw, green scales and white bellies. Others were of a more exotic kind, each one a prime example Red Belly's wide variety of tastes. Some with tentacles, some with teeth like that of a shark's, and others about as large as houses. The virile king never backed away from a chance to spawn, using the fruit of his loins to fill his ranks with a motley crew of various uses.

"Oh crap, look out!" cried one officer spotting a large, armored Sea-Men charging through his own ranks, flinging his brothers out of its way. The barricades were cleared before the behemoth hit, but its crash caused two cars to be flipped end over end until hitting the pavement fifty yards away. The Sea-Men exploited the weakness, converging and swarming over the barricades. The Police lines on Cortez were being pushed back, the Sea-Men not giving them any opportunity to withdraw and reform. With heavy fists and pure tenacity they tossed men like rag dolls into the air with little effort at all

"They're retreating, boss? They're retreating!" Crack squirmed in his master's grasp, trying desperately to breath.

Red Belly gave a perverse smile as he relished the conflict from afar.

"The monkeys effort is admirable but they lack the stamina to keep pace with my boys, Crack. No matter how hard or fast they go, soon their flesh will turn soft, pink and flabby. My boys, though, are built for speed and the long haul. We don't mess around beating around no bush. We go in for the kill." No matter how much fire power the puny humans decided to bring, the combination of quality and quantity his forces brought to the table were unmatched. For too long he'd been busting his nut against El Rey, for too long nocturnal dreams haunted his sleeping hours, only to be awoken with a raging bone to pick with the over-dwellers. Where Aquaman and those foppish Poseidonians entreat themselves to the air-breathers at every beck and call, Red Belly isn't a dog.

Suddenly Red Belly caught something light up in the distance, two whirling bio-electric tentacles rising up and crashing down into a line of his boys. He hadn't seen the likes of this since facing Orrin and his witch of a wife, before he and his master were banished to the Trench Lands beyond Posiedonis.

"Hmph!," Red Belly snorted with disgust, "Atlantean magic." His massive frame started forward. I twas time for him to make his entry point. And if things didn't get more annoying, off in the distance he spied a golden streak heading their way, as well.

"Bo-Boss! He's coming, he's here! The Gold one, the Gold one!" Crack cried as he lifted a claw towards Booster Gold.

 _"Tch, finally",_ Red Belly continued on without paying any heed, moving on with the rest of his progeny

* * *

The men stood clear from Kaldur as his water-bearers unleashed a jet so strong it sent a dozen Sea-Men falling back into their ranks. Then while bringing his hands over his head, Kaldur turned the slackened into whips and snapped them against macabre fish faces. Every strike landed with an audible thwack as the crowd was kept at bay, save for the armored sea beast who bellowed out a challenge and charged Kaldur, trampling his smaller brothers underfoot. Kaldur sized the beast up and ran right at it, whips turning into blades as he power slid under its bulk and sliced the tendons behind its ankles. The Sea-Man crashed down behind him into the street.

"Clear your men out of here." Kaldur ordered the stupefied officers. "Leave the rest to us."

"Us? Who the hell's 'us'?" Asked one cop before a yellow blur blew right by him.

"Coming through, 'scuse me, hero time." Bart Allen said before zig-zagging through the ranks of Sea-Men. A ring of cries going up with each toe Impulse stepped on.

Following in his path as she tried to keep up was Bumblebee, shrunk down and spinning as she threw out her lazer shot, putting many down on the ground as paralyzing shots of electricity ran through their muscles. Static kept pace with them, carrying both Tigress and Guardian riding Static's sewer cover before leaping down in the middle of a Sea-Men company. Guardian dropped one with his shield, slamming it across another while Tigress's Katana tangled with an awaiting beasts claws.

"Static!" Guardian called out as Static hovered over. Propping his shield up, he gave Virgil the signal for the move they'd been practicing these last few months. Tigress popped a few smoke pellets as Virgil shot a blast of electricity down towards the golden shield. Catching it, Guardian deflected the surge out to towards any unlucky Sea-Men around them.

Kaldur turned to face the officers. "Just some overly concerned citizens, officer." Kaldur smirked.

"I need you to get your men to clear the area. We can't guarantee there won't be any casualties caused by us if you don't." The officers looked at each other, a loss of words probably being too convenient an excuse for them to shut up. One nodded his head and motioned for his friend to get the sergeant and his bullhorn to pull everyone back. "The real heroes got this."

Kaldur leapt forward into the press to join Beta in their attack. He felled one creature with a crack of his mace, broke its jaw with a blow from his hammer. A Sea-Man came at him from his side, but Kaldu was too fast. As the hand grasped at him, Aqualad bent his body and leapt sideways, driving both weapons down hard into the monster's cranium. Fearlessly jumping into the gray Kaldur and his water bearers were a whirl of bio electricity, teeth flying everywhere as each time his strong arms launched an attack they hit their mark. Soon he found himself in the midst of fighting with Guardian and Tigress.

"Mind telling us what these things are, Kal!" Artemis asked as she fired away with her crossbow.

Kaldur trounced another Sea-Men in the face and right towards Guardian, who in a leaping vault careened his shield into the poor brute's sternum; all the while cops were seen pulling back.

"They're Tritonians!" Kaldur relayed, but a lot good that did Artemis.

"Um, might want to explain a little?"

"Atlanteans who followed a deranged prophet named Shalako." Kaldur sized up another Sea-Man who came at him with a clawed fist, but who's attack was stopped by Guardian's shield.

"So I take it not good friends with Aquaman?" The claw tried squeezing down on the shield but found it unbreakable. Mal shook it off, opening it for an attack from Virgil up top.

"There's little love lost." Kaldur responded.

"Speaking of friends, where's the Booster in all this?" Artemis questioned.

"Don't know, don't care. We're cleanin' house!" Bart said as continued to play chicken with the various monsters, none being able to land a punch on him.

Bumblebee too used her agility to out-thwart the creatures as they sloppily tried landing shots on her miniaturized figure. Darting in and out of their grasps, Bee found outsmarting the Sea-Men wasn't a hard task at all as she appeared in front of one's face, then darting away in a wash of blood and teeth when a fist from its fellow punched its face in.

"It'd still be nice to know we had our supervisor here, you know, supervising." she said.

"Right you are Bumblebee aka Karen Beecher." Called out Booster Gold as he whooshed into action, the jet-stream of his flight nearly blowing Karen back.

"The he - Did he just?! My real name?!" Karen said flabbergasted.

Booster turned to give a her a cocky salute. "No worries here, 'Bee. These chums won't last long enough to care."

A cascade of golden plasma rained down on the Sea-Men as Booster Gold swooped in, leaving a trail of plasma burns in his wake. Many of the sea creatures ran for cover as El Rey's premier caretaker decided to finally do his job and show up. Or at least, that was the thought Artemis had going in her mind.

"Huzzah!" He said flying down and tackling a group of them. Five muscular Sea-Men tried pushing back, but Booster kicked in the turbo boost and like the how the bass drops in the club blew the crowd up. But still holding onto one, Booster flew back in into the air and upon reaching the ultimate level of his flight pattern, whirled and threw down the monster to land in a pile of its brethren.

Booster primed a blast in his hand and sent a curving shot down into the street, incinerating the fish causing a sweet smell of a fish fry to perfume the area. "Shame. Should of brought in the tartar sauce."

Coming down to land on the charred pile of his stunned and "tapped-out" enemies, Booster did his Captain Morgan and shot the Sea-Men a satisfied smirk.

"I hope you know what you've gotten yourselves into here," Booster said as he primed his plasma cannons for another shot, aiming towards the center of the Sea-Men who stood in awe at him. "Because now that Booster Gold has arrived, along with his fine fellows, you all should've quit while you were ahead."

"Blah! It's the Golden Cow of El Rey. The hell we need a reason to be afraid of him?" Yelled out one Sea-Men from the crowd.

"Yeah he's just another Green Lantern-chump, wannabe." Called out another.

"Let me rephrase that," Booster said as the lazer was set and ready to engage, his suits system locking onto a target array of these fools. "Perhaps you should've quit while you all still had your heads. Booster Gold Special #2 Golden Horde Combination!"

The orb of plasma released with an intent to maim and or kill - whichever would come first Booster didn't care. Making a bee-line towards them, many in front ranks of Sea-Men ducked lest smoked salmon be the next thing on El Rey's menu. The blast shot over them as it hurtled towards the middle, but was then turned away. A gargantuan backhand slapped the ball away, upending into a building as it exploded.

Booster, Beta squad and the Sea-Men were shocked at seeing the blast turned away as easily as it was, but a large figure revealed itself in their midst. "Naming your moves now? Isn't that a little presumptuous?" Came the deep masculine voice.

Beta squad reformed themselves behind Booster and spied a lumbering Tritonian coming forward. A large, pale-blue monster, perhaps seven or eight feet tall, rippled with muscle evidenced by a bright red eight-pack and pecs emerged. A scarlet, coral crown sat atop a face which looked oddly humanoid, save for the black lion-fish spines around his face like a mane. Red sea weed hung behind in a train forming a long cape. Coming along for the ride was a shivering, woe-begotten sea-crab whose one good eye-stock shifted back and forth between it's master and Booster Gold.

"So, you're finally here. Does that mean we fight now?" Red Belly looked behind Booster to see Beta quad standing there, lead by a certain Atlantean whom he'd heard much about. "So Aqualad's come to play in the Big Time," Red Belly licked his lips. "So I see you brought me some more chum to throw in the water. Not very smart. Might start a feeding frenzy if ya aint too careful."

"The Booster Brigade was formed by me just in the likely scenario would be crawling back out of the surf, Red Belly. Because you always seem to be hankering for a beatdown." Booster called out to his large opponent.

"Did he just call us his 'Booster Brigade'?" asked Bumblebee.

"Ha! I do enjoy a nice beatdown, gets the heart pumpin!"

Booster Gold's suit increased in glow and energy as he stared down the brute Red Belly, getting tighter as his muscles contracted and flexed with the added power coursing through his suit.

"You're going to rue this day, Red Belly. No one messes with El Rey while I'm in town." Booster warned, hot plasma gathering in the palms of his hands.

"Is that so?" Red Belly took a menacing step forward, shaking the ground as he did. "My loins are frothing to think of what you're going to do to stop me."

Booster was unfazed as he walked towards the Sea-King, trademark smile donning his face without nary a hint of worry written on it. He seemed so confident and sure, Beta looking on waiting to see if Booster Gold's reputation lived up to the ego he flaunted.

"You're disgusting Red Belly, and if there's one thing El Rey doesn't need floating around it's bay, it's trash like you." Booster stopped when he came face-to-belly with the behemoth towering over him. The height difference was so striking it made Gold look silly, a regular David versus Goliath, but he never relented. "Good thing it's Thursday, though. So you're in luck; trash gets taken away today."

A loud thumping was heard as the deep laugh of Red Belly's chuckle was heard. "Hehehe, my gills are quivering with fear."

"You'll be quivering all right. In Pain!" Three successive shots, three golden rings burst, as Red Belly's chest was peppered in a combination which rocked the surrounding area. But not Red Belly himself. Booster didn't stop. "Wanna make this interesting, I see? All right. Try this!" Booster propelled himself with his suit to land an uppercut to Red Belly's jaw, spinning in a ridiculously fast flurry then landed an elbow to Red's temple. It was a shot that could fell anyone, but Red Belly looked untroubled.

"Is that it then?"

For a moment Booster looked to be actually worried when he realized the big man wasn't going down as easily as he thought; he and Red had squared off numerous times in the past, but never did he seem so impervious as he did now.

Resuming his attack in a speedy flurry, punches and kicks were sprinkled all over Belly's person, but they seemed to have no effect on the fish as he lazily looked about like he had something better to do. Booster then reappeared in front of him, goggles fogged with steam and sweat, and brought both his hands back.

"I didn't want to have to do this, Red Belly, but you leave me no choice." Plasma particles built into large orbs cradled in Booster's hands, gathering a large amount of his suit's energy to put into a fatal shot aimed for Red's skull. If it was supposed to scare the monster fish, though, it didn't. "Booster Gold Special No. 9: Lazer Show!" Bringing his hands down and thrusting the beams out, Belly's head was bathed in a mesmerizing show of light.

"Whoa!" said Impulse looking out at the crazy display. "Aint he something?"

The beams kept coming as Booster grit his teeth hard and bit down to fry the damned fish where he stood. But suddenly a large fist enveloped both of his hands, stifling the lazers within their grasp and bringing them up, leaving him open for a damning body shot to his stomach.

"Thank you for the thoughts, but I'm not really into golden showers. So 2003" Said Red Belly as his face looked singed, but no worse for wear than before. He then slammed Booster down into the pavement and sent a shot that collided square, driving the hero down into a Booster Gold sized hole.

"If this is the best you've got to offer me, Booster, well then I'm sorry chum. But in the words of one such air breather whom I can stomach, I'd have to call you're performance here to be..." Red Belly brought a heavily muscled thigh up, taught and primed to deliver a shot even Andre Pirlo could be proud of. And with a bellow of macho gusto, he yelled, "MEDIOCRE!" and launched Booster with a massive kick into the high rise twenty stories up.

"Quite enjoyed that movie." Said Red Belly as many of his cronies in the background held up arms to signify the kick was "good".

" Oh yeah, he's something all right." Said Artemis as she prepped her katana down in a defensive stance.

"Beta, wedge, now. I will be the point of attack. Tigress. Guardian. Follow my lead. Static and Bumblebee, I want you two covering our flanks as we push forward. Kid Flash, take care of any stragglers that get behind us." Ordered Kaldur as one water bearer turned into a shield while the other into a spiked mace. "We need to drive them back into the water!"

"Hah! Drive us into the water, he says? Is that your plan of attack?" Mocked Red Belly in a disgusting sneer. He cracked the knuckles on his right hand in gleeful preparation. "You should know more than anyone, Atlantean, we were birthed by the sea - she gives us life! Driving us back to her arms, only delays the inevitable."

Red Belly's figure loomed larger than ever as the sun beat down on his proud chest, puffed out and goading Aqualad to challenge his dominion here. These upstarts were just trespassers in his territory, lead by a rival male seeking to sew his dominance in the land. Red Belly was not keen on challengers.

"You think my Sea-Men are here for a petty attempt to peacock, but I assure you, we aint no punk-ass bitches. It is just the natural order for the weak to be swallowed by the strong; just as true on the surface as it is under the sea. And I am the strongest. You're Aquaman deludes himself in trying to be the bridge between both realms, but that's guppy mentality. You don't survive by joining the weak, you do so by eating them. Can you dig that, Aquaboy?"

Kaldur lowered his eyes in a deathly glare as an outpouring of whoops and hollers erupted behind Red Belly. His boys cheered on his name, the chant of "Red Belly" sounding off through the now deserted streets.

"Awwwww hell..." Mal said tightening the grip on his shield. "I think things are just about to get real, guys."

Red Belly's fist rose in the air as he signaled his boys to rally to him, prepping them to charge headlong into this "Booster Patrol" or whatever the hell that idiot called them. Beta readied and primed themselves on Kaldur's command. No doubt this would be a tall order, taller than the Tritonian or Sea-Man or whatever he wanted to call himself, pumped his fist and charged.

* * *

No one was moving on the freeway now, specially not the friggin Fonda Accord. But Hunter sang along to his mix tape to settle his nerves.

Man did singing feel good. Hunter hadn't done it professionally in a long-ass time. Reminded him of the roar of the crowds, the stadiums, the thrill people use to get when he and the boys got up on stage. It was nice, nice to get lost in good memories when you're about to make a bad one. Hunter lost himself in the music, biding his time, oblivious to the outside world or the billowing smoke being kicked up across the freeway downtown.


	4. Welcome to the Jungle Pt III

**Badly Painted Van, El Rey**

 **17:35 PDT**

When Harry Belafonte comes on, you make damn sure you sing along. Good song, this one, good song. Hunter remembered this from his second wedding reception, which was nice. Granted it was the first 'legit' one he had, with a wedding cake and actual ceremony. Not like his 'first' first one where they celebrated at a stranger's barbecue down in Mexicali, partying with nasty Korona beer and freeze dried sausages. Although, Hunter did recall having more fun at that one.

"Jump in the line, rock your body on time! OK, I believe you." Hunter sang trying to get the other guy in the car beside him to sing along.

"Jump in the line, rock your body on time." He pointed over to the obviously troubled man listening to his radio; he waved Hunter off uncaring.

"Jump in the line, rock your body on time!" Hunter pointed at him again, but he wasn't having it.

"You idiot, don't you know the city is under attack?!" He yelled discouraged at Hunter's incessant pointing.

"OK, I believe you."

* * *

 **San Emilia Bay**

 **17:37**

Kaldur made many cuts against Red Belly's bright red stomach, but the Tritonian was unfazed. Kaldur then shot up with a strike against Red Belly's jaw; a few serrated teeth went flying as the beast was sent back. It even sent the crab creature hanging onto his shoulder flying off and tumbling through the air. Without missing a step, Kaldur delivered twin hits from his hammers to Red Belly's knees causing him to fall.

Red Belly grunted, pushing Kaldur away with a strong shove, but that didn't buy him any reprieve. A yellow wind blew right past his face. "How we doing big guy?" said the red-haired little runt. Belly gritted his teeth and quirked his eyebrows confused until his face was met with a blurred barrage of fists.

"Rargh!" Red Belly was blinded by the annoyance and swiped a paw at the little flea.

"Nope, try again." Bart said dodging the strike.

Whoop! Almost got me there!" He said again as another punch missed and blew up the pavement.

"This city is actually seems pretty fun. Do you come here often?" Belly delivered a cross-kick which missed miserably as Kid Flash raced around him peppering more shots.

Red Belly had an annoyed look as the yellow tornado kept spinning. He knew this sidekick's mentor could be just as bothersome, thank Neptune Central City was nowhere close; the headaches he'd receive weren't worth the trouble of conquering the city. Perhaps he'll just destroy it.

"Can't stop me, can't stop the Kid Flash. Oh yeah. What comes around, goes around, and doesn't stop 'till-" With perfect timing Belly sent out his forearm and clotheslined Bart, sending him back-somersaulting and crashing down.

"Hmph, speedsters." Red Belly made his way to the yellow and red pile to finish him off before an electrical blast stopped his tracks.

"Not so fast." Guardian called out directing Static's electricity in a concentrated beam.

"Heh, shoulda told that to him." Red Belly looked down at the beam and chuckled. "Tickles. Wonder if this is good for my skin."

Red Belly turned over to launch two massive arms into the side of an upturned car. Picking it up with relative ease, he flung it towards Virgil who barely had time to evade, the sudden rush causing his hat to fly off and right into a Sea-Man's gaping gullet. "Aw man! My favorite hat!"

Mal barely had time to get his shield up before Red Belly launched a dropkick in his direction, the force sending Mal flying twenty yards down the street. Kaldur and Tigress both assaulted Red Belly in turn, Tigress keeping him off balance with her katana and Kaldur covering her with his water shield.

* * *

 **Crap Van With Crazy Guy Singing Inside**

 **17:45 PDT**

"I'll be your nonstop lover, get it while you can!" Hunter beat his hands in rhythm to the song as he rode the wave of Bobby Ocean's voice. "Your non-stop miracle, I'm your man!"

A thunderous boom echoed across downtown as the freeway was rocked. Hunter paid no mind as he hit the chorus. "Get outta my dreams! Do-dodo-do do! Get into my car!"

* * *

 **Saint Emily Bay**

 **17:45 PDT**

Guardian was pummeled straight through the windshield of a police SUV. His shield taking most of the damage from the kick, but his back killed him as bits of glass got under his armor and pinched when he moved - Which he did immediately as a Sea-Man came with a needle-like fin probing for blood.

Mal blocked the first shot, bashed his shield with the second, and dodged a third, but the monster was relentless. It's fourth cut found home as it sliced a gash past Mal's guard and across his chest.

"Argh!" Mal screamed. He regained his senses and sent a powerful kick landing full across the beast's jaw, hanging limp as it broke. Another kick sent the beast flailing down the hood.

"Damn!" Mal cursed as he felt blood begin to gush from his wound, but the adrenaline pumping stemmed any pain. He knew he couldn't afford to stop.

He then spied down at the ignition of the car and smiled. Apparently the previous owner left in such a hurry he decided to leave his keys, too. Not bad. Considering he saw Kaldur and Tigress being harassed a by that red bellied freak, and his goons right across the way, Mal wondered if they didn't mind if he -

* * *

 **Badly Painted Van**

 **17:50 PDT**

"CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL! I NEVER HIT SO HARD IN LOVE!" Hunter screamed out as Miley's sultry voice only made him want to meet her again. That was a fun Christmas ball. Here's to hopefully getting invited to another one

* * *

 **San Emilia Bay**

 **17:50 PDT**

The large Avalanche SUV crasged into the crowd of Sea-Men behind Kaldur, who continued his duel with their larger leader, dodging meaty fists that caused craters in all the spots he once stood.

* * *

 **Van (you get the picture at this point)**

 **17:50 PDT**

"All I wanted was to break your walls! All you did was wr-e-e-ck me!"

* * *

 **San Emilia Bay**

 **17:54 PDT**

The Sea-Men were sent flying through the window of a fashion boutique, knocking over a slew of mannequins as they went.

"Whoo!" Mal yelled in excitement. "Fast and the Furious aint got nothing on this feels."

Tigress used her fancy sword work to carve up Red Belly's hide gashing him with dozens of cuts. Red Belly weathered them all with the dastardly patience of an eel waiting to slip from its cove. He sent one meaty fist in her direction which Tigress dodged with ease, but it left her open for a left cut sent skyward. Cartwheeling out the way with expert timing, Tigress let loose a few flashbangs to cover her retreat and open an avenue for Kaldur.

"Yah!" Kaldur leveled two shots from his hammers that collided square against Red Belly's ugly mug. Shirking them off as if being peppered by bee stings, Red Belly pounced to deliver a high double axe-handle shot. In a second reaction Kaldur recalled his water to reform its shield. It held, but Red Belly's attack was strong, driving Kaldur to both knees as he struggled to match the Tritonian's strength.

"Heh, imagine that. Manta's whelp in the Big Time with big, bad Red Belly." Red Belly's disgusting face could be seen nice and clear through the water from Kaldur's shield. "I never thought I'd see you here."

Kaldur pushed the monster off with all his strength, bare-feet driving hard into the earth. "You talk as if you know me monster, but I don't believe we've ever had the pleasure."

"Me and you? No. Not necessarily." Red Belly scoffed. "But I've had runnings with your father - both of them! The terrorist and his traitor. Let's just say I relish the thought of choosing which one I would rather send your head."

"You'll find it won't be pried so easily." Kaldur charged once more meeting Red Belly's, another crashing shot hitting his water shield.

"I'll give the devil his due, you got a lotta spunk in ya, whelp. But I don't boast the biggest pythons under the sea for nothing." Suddenly Red Belly's body surged with increased muscle as he puffed up into a gargantuan size, spikes poking out dangerously, and his fist now equaling the circumference of Kaldur's shield. "Ha! Sorry, whelp, aint nothing but a thing when this happens. Occurs only when I get all hot and bothered. Ohhhh yeaaaaahhhh!"

Kaldur turned his right water bear into a bladed axe which came down and struck at the large forearm holding him. It broke skin, but barely. "Heh, not letting an opportunity slip by you. Kinda like me, kinda like the reason why I'm here. I know when not pass up on a good thing." Red Belly shirked away the water axe and backhanded Kaldur, cutting him with the numerous spikes protruding there.

* * *

 **The Mystery Machine**

 **17:58 PDT**

 **"** Bittersweet memories, that is all I'm taking with me." Though Hunter had always thought songs made specifically for movies were typically shit, except for anything played in the James Bond credits, he had to make an exception for Whitney. It was a crap movie, but man was this a killer song. Couldn't go wrong with it. Every word spoke so true to Hunter's heart he recalled a few man-tears being shed to it in the past.

And there is absolutely no shame for a man to be singing arguably Whitney's greatest "best song" ever.

"So goodbye", Hunter sang, "We both know I'm not what you, you neeeeeeed!"

* * *

 **San Emilia Bay**

 **17:59 PDT**

The rest of Beta was cut off from Kaldur. The numbers which had assaulted the police lines, now surged against Beta in a raucous charge that would been fit for Stalingrad.

Another spiked punch flattened him against the dirt, and Kaldur could see his world fading fast. _"Poison,"_ he thought as he felt his motor skills slowly fading.

Red Belly laughed as he saw Kaldur stuggling to get up. "Home brew the stuff myself, Atlantean. Not particularly deadly for your lot - not like for the other air-suckers. But it is a bitch to get over aint it?"

Kaldur tried steadying the shaking in his legs, the poison weighing down his blood like amber. A cold sweat broke out on his forehead, his vision blurred, his muscles seemed to ache with every step. The poison worked its magic faster than his Atlantean heritage could work it through his system. But suddenly Kaldur caught the movement of black mass moving in behind Red Belly, coming in fast, lurching up and down as it paved its way through an ocean of Sea-Men.

In stunned surprise Red Belly saw the oncoming Avalanche heading towards him like a deer in head lights and screamed-

* * *

 **The Shaggin Wagon**

 **18:00 PDT**

"And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAIIIIIII! Will always love youuuuuuuooooouuuuuu!" No doubt the best part of the song to lose yourself to. Anyone who agrees gets a totes high five and smack on the ass, because if you don't like this song you can take your snooty ass to France and hang out with a snooty fat phoque.

"Man! Mixtape! Whoo!" It was the best Hunter had felt all day, until he glanced at the clock again. And then the reality of his predicament knocked him harder than the explosions heard in the distance did. He looked around at dismay as he say people turning their heads dazed and confused. This was worse than actually seeign an accident take place on the highway, because you couldn't even particularly see what the shiz was even happening.

Hunter turned his head too and tried to spy a good look, but no dice. It's not like he felt invested in the ordeal. Not in the slightest. He didn't feel any particular attraction to the fight. But his gauntlet did and it started itching worse than before. At first he thought it was just a reaction from the Toro he drank, but now he kinda figured...

"Hey," Hunter rolled down his window and called to the person next to him. "What's the deal?"

"Red Belly's attacking the city. Reports say Booster Gold and a team of his are trying to put him down."

Hunter heard the whirl of blades as a News Channel 6 chopper hovered overhead. People then were starting to get out of there cars for a better look at the downtown beatdown.

"Ohhhhh, no..." Hunter brought his right hand up to drag across his forehead as he sighed terribly, the feeling coming from his wrist getting worse as sounds of the fight looked to get even worse.

* * *

 **San Emilia Bay**

 **18:05 PDT**

The Avalanche drove itself into Red Belly's gut, taking the monster away from Kaldur to buy him a breather. Mal punched the pedal as far down as it could go, wheels burning out on the pavement as the XL-sized Red Belly nearly went under the charging SUV. But suddenly two large arms wrapped themselves around the front of the car stopping it in its tracks. In an awesomely macho display of power Red Belly lifted the front end of the car.

"Aw, hell." Said Mal putting on his seat-belt and staring at Red Belly's furious face.

"Yeah, oh yeah, outside interference with a foreign object?" Red Belly heaved the car up. With a twirl Red Belly launched Mal and the SUV high into a nearby building. "Overcompensating is a hotdog move, chump. And I aint gonna allow it in mah house!"

Kaldur felt a vice come back to latch onto his neck, squeezing just enough to let him know he wasn't going anywhere. His Atlantean physiology was coping with the poison as fast as it could, but his vision was still blurry and his muscles still ached. Kaldur struggled against the damning grip, but damn was he strong.

"Yeah, that's it. Let it happen, half-breed." Red Belly brought his disgusting, cut-up face down to breath against Kaldur's, lips curled revealing serrated edged teeth. "Never thought betrayal was relative. But what's to be expected. Manta's own henchman deciding to betray him and marry his own cast-off; raising his son to eventually do the same thing to him all over again. Ha! It grabs my gills hard to know how pathetic it sounds. Did you know, Atlantean, there is no creature in all the ocean deep so reviled than the son who betrays his own father. A true credit to Orin's court he keeps you skulking around his thrown."

"His blood may run through my veins..." Blue light began to surge with renewed strength as Kaldur's arms flexed, tattoos lighting up with bright phosphorescence. His left hand turned into a hammer, which he smashed across Red Belly's face with a deafening blow. Twisting his body, he brought his right formed to a mace and careened another strike hard into the skull of the villain. Belly let go of Kaldur and back-pedaled as Kaldur pressed a left, a right, another left. Fine hits all as Kaldur gave Red Belly no quarter; his Sea-Men shocked seeing their leader driven back. Kaldur pushed his muscles with as much strength and speed as he could, guiding his two whirling blunt objects into an overhead strike. They landed. With such speed and force They hit with such speed and force the dust

"...But blood does not betray who I am." Kaldur said staring over his opponent.

"...Hargh...Hargh...Hargh... Very good, Atlantean, very good." Dust cleared to show Red Belly's muscular right arm blocking both hammers. Scales were chipped, blood was running, and a bit of bone was showing, but the mangled limb did the job.

"Strong." Came the gruff voice of Red Belly. "Very strong. Now I know why Orin keeps you. A worthy adversary Atlantean, but a few more years with your school might've helped you. Because this is El Rey. This is my hunting ground." A session of shots rang across Kaldur's chest. Kaldur backed away. Red Belly's combinations were getting harder to block, his arms shaking with every rocking blow he took.

"Give up, half-breed." Red Belly sent a left hook which Kaldur dodged, but was then caught by a punch sent toward the gut. He coughed up blood as the shockwave reverberated through his entire being. "You aint got what it takes to satisfy me."

Red Belly balanced Kaldur on his fist and was priming another fist to finish him.

From a distance Artemis saw this and tried desperately to fight her way towards her friend, slashing with her katana in a circular motion to keep the surrounding Sea-Men at bay.

"Kaldur!" she called out, but stopped as more henchmen blocked her path.

The rest of Beta was faring no better. Virgil and Karen were pinned in a corner, electric shocks and lazer blasts dropping many of their enemies to form a ring of dazed and unconscious beasts around them. Bart was doing all he could with his super speed, but his punches weren't strong enough to dent their thick hides, and with their increasing numbers, it was hard to find many avenues to maneuver. Mal had just been thrown away and Booster Gold had been gone since getting launched into the high-rise.

But just then a loud scream caught Artemis's attention.

* * *

 **I-96 to Osbourne, El Rey**

 **18:05 PDT**

"Oh, C'mon! This has nothing to with you! Absolutely nothing at all to do with any of you!" Hunter called out.

He was breaking into a conniption fit that could Kanye West blush. He lost it harder when he started seeing people literally get out of their cars, phones at the ready.

"Why are you getting out of your cars? Jesus Christ, don't get out of your cars!...Oh, oh, that's perfect, yeah, pull your cell-phones out of your vaginas and chirp this shit. 'OMG! Totes fearing for my life! #Superheroes #yolo #bestpicoftheday #I Overcompensate With Social Media Because I Feel That Validates Me In Real Life #love"

Beeping his horn did him no good, save for getting a few angry looks and couple of middlefingers thrown his way. Amazing. Most cases people would usually be running away from the danger, but ya know, not in El Rey. Nope. People were so stupid here they estimated the value of a chirp or instapost video to be more than their so called 'existence'. And yes, Hunter absolutely meant to put quotation marks over the 'existence' part, because what these people did day in and day out was not life, but a gimmick of one.

He plopped his head against the steering wheel in abject defeat.

And he wonders why he keeps coming back...

No...That was a lie. He did know why.

A picture propped up in the dashboard reminded him.

Why he keeps coming back like a sucker with no self-esteem, is because like these idiots with their camera phones and nauseating attempts for self-aggrandizement, with their Grumblr accounts and facespace posts, he too seeks validation. Because from his hum-drum, good-for-nothing, one-album wonder, wastrel existence came something worth fighting for. Hunter knew he'd never be in the running for best dad of the year, but goddamn, don't ever tell him he didn't at least attempt to try.

The gauntlet tinged with power as it sensed the nearby fight. Hunter looked at his right arm and then out his passenger side window. An explosion sending five Sea-Men into the air it looked, sparks of yellow light flashing and wavy tendrils of blue electricity shot up.

 _"Dang it._.." Hunter sighed. " _Red Belly._..Dooks!" He yelled in annoyance and hatred.

Despite his losing record, Belly was incessantly persistent. Any other day Hunter would've given him credit for trying. It was admirable. Really. In a "loser" sort of way. But not today. Today was a non-negotiable "no fuck up" day as laid out so eloquently by the squeaky voice on his phone.

And Red Belly was fucking it for him. He was fucking him hard and he couldn't afford to be fucked now.

Hunter checked his phone. **6:15**. She was set to go onstage promptly at six-thirty. If he goes now and finishes this early, he might - MIGHT - still be able to make it.

He looked back at the picture of his daughter. Dammit!

She was perfect in every way a parent sees their kid. Her toothy grin peering over the over-sized guitar which she struggled to handle, pink clips holding short, black pig-tails upright. Her mother was by her side, too, flashing a smile which Hunter vaguely remembered happened quite a bit back in those days. When everything wasn't so fucking fucky most of the time.

"Shyte..." A jolting shock rocked the interstate and shook Hunter's van. The onlookers all gasped with fright - yet most, amazingly enough, still held onto their phones. "Veronica's gonna kill me."

Hunter's right arm begged to be let loose, wanted to so badly it was hard to think straight. It was the equivalent of having a boner while wearing tight pants. Friction just killing every brain cell as you struggled to focus but couldn't because it felt so good. Every movement made it worse, every fiber turning into a straight jacket erotically asphyxiating your Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, every thought gearing towards one thing. All because of those goddamn pants! Who do you blame? You for wearing the stupid pair of straight-legged dungarees, or the chick in the gym who thought it was okay to wear spandex and squat in front you. That's not fair! It was just nature's way of complementing you.

And like nature's calling, the two fiery embers simmered brightly in the gauntlet's metal visage, its sheen more pronounced, the wolf snarl overwhelming. Like the hot girl in the gym, it stared back at Hunter accusingly, waiting for either him to act or to submit. The moment hung at a crossroads for a Hunter where either he hid his boner in shame, or accepted what it was he wanted and confidently strode in the Valley of Death with fire in his eyes and a bone to pick in his pants.

"Yes, yes, okay, I know! I'm coming!." Hunter said unbuckling his seat belt. He moved to the back to get him some space, kicking away a soda cans and Kamehameha Burger bags.

"All right, if this is how it's gonna be. Do your thing." He held onto the gauntlet as it began to pulse with energy. This part was always the hardest, still was a bitch to get used to. Hunter fell to his knees, blue and orange flames covering his wrist, then his hand, soon his entire right arm. He grunted in pain and soon the entire van interior was gutted by fire. It encompassed everything, Hunter included, until a blast of energy exploded ripping metal apart. Bystanders on the freeway turned with phones wild-eyed and in shock, thinking the battle was moving closer to them, until suddenly they saw a trail of flame shoot up into the air like a rocket and turning at a ninety degree angle.

It was heading directly for the Downtown area.

* * *

 **San Emilia Bay**

 **18:19 PDT**

"Aqualaaaaaaaad!" Mal screamed as he leaped from the building where the SUV stuck out.

Red Belly looked up with mild interest as a flash of gold metal stung his eyes.

"Yaahhhhh!" Mal drove the shield's point into the crux of Belly's shoulder. It embedded itself into the monster's neck, but the thick muscle protected him from a potentially fatal blow.

Red Belly stared with mild annoyance at Mal as he let Aqualad drop. Mal tried pulling himself free from the monster, but Red Belly's reflexes were fast as he snatched Mal's right arm and squeezed. Mal grit his teeth as he felt his bones break, but fought through it sending a knee into Belly's jaw.

"The cream of the crop always rises to the top, but I gots to ask you one thing, kid. Do you find yourself to be in an unjustifiably uncomfortable position you'd rather not be in right now?" Red Belly smiled as he launched a damning strike into Mal's gut, the cut from before shooting out blood literally being punched out of him.

"Now I aint got no beef with you, kid. But the minnow should know his place in the food chain. It cannot strike out against the alpha male without repercussion." He threw Mal against a pile of rubble across the street; shield was still sticking out of his shoulder as he did.

Moving blindingly fast, Red Belly cleared the way toward Mal in one jump. A hand wrapped around Mal's neck, steadying him for a punch which cracked against the Guardian helmet. Red Belly then struck again, and again, and again. Each blow hitting harder and faster with each successive hit. When the dust cleared, Mal's helmet was cracked in a long gash down across its left eye.

"Mal! Mal!" Came a voice Mal barely heard past the ringing in his head. It sounded a lot like Karen, but he was lost in a haze. But he still didn't relent as he fought past his probable concussion and tried to get up, but Red Belly planted a foot on his chest.

"Stay down, chum." The beast snorted pressing harder onto Mal's chestguard.

Karen screamed in a rage as she sent a barrage of errant lazer beams cutting through the Sea-Men. Virgil nearly got hit by a couple shots as well.

"Whoa, hey, Karen!" He said lifting himself to cover.

Karen ran her course through the gaggle of sea creatures, dipping and dodging with great agility as heavy punches missed her. They were too slow to make any impact, but she felt that she was too. Seeing Mal writhe in pain under that damn monster's webbed foot made her push the booster's in her wings as fast as they could go, the hum of their motor working overtime as it started to overheat. "Hold on, Mal" she kept saying to herself, "Hold on baby, I'm coming." Mal screamed out in pain as more weight was lowered onto him, cries which grated across Karen's ears. She had to make it, she need needed to; the Sea freaks were too slow to catch her. All save for one.

Karen fell to the ground with a small thud, knocked unconscious by a surprise hit she never saw coming.

Crack doesn't nearly make himself useful as a good servant should, not with the drug habit and all. But some times on those few occasions where he can actually do something right, he just so happens to be inconveniencing someone else. With one wayward strike, Crack managed to hit Karen as she flew. She didn't notice Crack, not many people or things do, but all to the best for the little crab beast. He crab-walked awkwardly over to where she lay. Protein never came to readily to Crack - hanging with these jack-offs guaranteed that, but he might have found his morsel here. Crack primed his claw to dig into the bug lady, thinking of so many ways to cook up bumblebees, until a super speedy kick turned Crack into a kickball.

"Daw, c'mon!" Crack screamed as he flew to through the air.

"Don't worry, Bee. I got you." Bart picked up the pace as he carried Karen to a safe distance. It was tough though. A lot of the Sea-Men were converging on this one street, and they were only six versus what seems to be turning into a billion..

"How many of these goons are there?" Bart thought to himself as he entered that certain level of speed where everything slowed to a standstill. But the number of Sea-men everywhere was disgusting, the smell exponentially getting worse even when he ran this fast.

He turned to see Artemis cleaving one Sea-Men in the jaw with well-placed kick, while another behind her was getting rammed from behind by Virgil's manhole cover. But with Mal incapacitated, Kaldur barely holding his own, and now he literally holding Karen in his hands, what were they to do. Even the Green Lantern guy bailed on them first chance he get creamed by fish-face.

With these thoughts going through his mind however, Bart gave into his bad habit of outrunning his awareness because a Sea-Men which plopped his scaly behind right in front of Bart. Bart skidded his feet, trying to stop and turn direction in time, until the incoming fist helped do that for him. He shielded Karen as best he could as he was sent flying through the window of a department store.

"That crashed me hard. Too hard." Bart's head began to spin. He had taken his fair share of lumps in the future from his boy Blue- back then, or, maybe, would that be in the future (Bart couldn't stop his head from spinning enough to figure it out), he and Jaime weren't exactly on good speaking terms. But the fist from the fish certainly matched it.

Shadows started forming where Bart was blasted through the window. He looked down to see Karen's body not too far away. Maybe if he could grab her quick and high tail it, he might get past the goons before they block his escape. Unnatural faces stared loathsomely towards Bart, licking their chops as they got the speedster cornered. he struggled getting himself up, but his mind was still swimming in the jelly his legs were walking in.

"Hit him pretty hard, didn't ya, Bro?" A tentacled arm went and nudged a shelled shoulder.

"Aint hard enough, Brah." Replied one. "Need to do more starfish push-ups and get my swol back, lookin flaccid today."

"Totes, man. You're startin' to look like Rose from Human Resources. All flabby and jelly."

"That's cuz Rose is a jellyfish, Brosiedon."

"Exactly...Hey, why do we have Human Resources?"

"Why does anyone have Human Resources."

Bart didn't know what was worse: if the conversation was really happening or if that punch crashed his mode to delirium. The looming shadows still conversed over the intricacies of fish having a Human Resources department, especially for Red Belly to have one considering what he thinks of humans in general. Bart crawled over to Karen to shield her from the beatdown most likely to come, trying to force out the stars flitting in his head, until a resounding flash of light, powerful and illuminating, crashed down outside and put everything to glow. Suddenly HR and Bart didn't seem so interesting anymore to the Sea-Men.

"If it aint the metabolic boys at it again?" Came a mocking voice. "Can't find enough protein in the sea, so you decide to harass young kids in spandex. Yeah, that's healthy." The four fish turned around to see which one of the air-monkeys had the balls to address them as such. Turning around they saw what looked to be a nobody; a hobo with a leather jacket, a metal arm, and goofy ass pair of red sunglasses which splayed out ridiculously.

"The hell is this scrawny piece of meat spewing?" Said one of the Sea-Men.

"He looks drunk?" Said another.

"He looks like a male prostitute - not that there's anything wrong with that. We all need jobs and this economy's brutal." Replied a third.

"He looks like a woe begotten man navigating a sea of his own troubles, balancing his life's existence on a cross bearing his own personal demons and the life of a reluctant hero, wondering if he'll ever feel the sweet embrace of freedom, a feeling every man hopes to have but seldom ever get..."

Silence as his three other brothers looked over in disbelief at him. Seeing their total ineptitude at trying to understand him, he quickly corrected, "...A-And he looks like a bitch."

They all nodded in agreement, mumbles of "Yeah" and "he looks like a bitch" coming from them all. Not that the man looked like he cared for their opinion.

"Aaaaaannnnddd, we're done." He said smirking.

Suddenly it happened so fast Bart barely had time to see much of anything. A sudden burst of air, the sound of a single, heavy punch, a flash of light and a loud crash as four large bodies were sent flying into the back wall. It was an insane show of speed and strength Bart really ever saw to appreciate, but here it was from a guy those fish-dudes said looked like a female dog. But to Bart, from what he could see, didn't think the dude looked like a bitch. From where he came from, female dogs looked halfway scrawny and totally rundown. Kinda like most humans were. This guy didn't look like that, not totally.

"Hey, Red and Yellow, think you can take care of yourself while I go to work?" Asked the stranger. Bart gave him a slight nod of his head and a thumbs up as he caught his breath. "Cool Beans." said the man as he continued to walk away. "I'll like chirp or whatever to tell you the coast is clear. Till then hang-tight."

* * *

Artemis caught a glimpse of the man as he walked back out from the store.

He was tall, as tall as Booster Gold, but looking slightly more muscular. Where Booster was lean and cut like so many a teen pop-idol, this guy carried the weight of a bar-room fighter. Long arms, broad chest, muscles clearly defined but covered by a healthy layer of fat and muscle for extra padding. Reminded Artemis a bit of her dad, if a tad smaller. His black leather jacket with the faded red flames and high fur collar though, gave him that extra bit of size. Made him look 'big' without being goofy - not like those pointy, rose-red, triangle sunglasses he wore.

"Who is this guy?" Virgil asked from looking on high.

"No idea." Artemis said sizing the new meta up, but she was thankful either way he showed up; her heart sank when Bart was launched by a punch, fearing as she saw Kid Flash and Bumblebee seemingly get cornered.

"Come on," Artemis nudged Virgil down to where Bart . "We need to get them to safety."

"But what about Guardian and Aqualad?" Virgil questioned. Artemis looked down to see Red Belly had stopped pounding Mal and turned as his attention to where the commotion was. It was fixed on the stranger, as were the rest of his gang's attention as the man lazily waltzed towards them. She bit her lip in frustration.

"Whoever he is, he's bought us time. Focus on Bart and Karen, then Kaldur and Mal." Artemis could see Virgil's dismayed look behind his dreads, and she hated trusting in people she didn't know either, but it was out of their hands.

* * *

Transforming felt so much like a bad sunburn to Hunter it wasn't even funny. His skin always itched when he did, and it seemed the frickin fur collar was still on him too, even after coming back from space. A nice touch at first, but he knew that wouldn't translate well to a SoCal summer. Plus, he already had this stupid white scarf anyway, so what the shit? Honestly, this thing's obsession with protecting his neck was getting about as literal as a Raekwon song.

"Bleh! Smells like a brothel in here." Hunter brought his heavy metal hand to cover his nose from the disgusting smell of halibut and lowered expectations; calling cards of the Red Belly gang for years. Speaking of which, they all were standing about looking dumb and disoriented as usual, with their great big, googley eyes, and their boss having this extremely troubled look on his face as he stood in the back .

The spurs on Hunter's steel-tipped Stetson's clanged with each step he took. A breeze tinged with a raw touch of autumn blew against the dust and debris, his fur collar and scarf getting kicked up in his face - yeah that wasn't going to get annoying. He stared directly at Red Belly and addressed him.

"Being in this part of town," Hunter yelled out, his voice carrying loudly on the deserted street. "Two things I figured could be the cause for this God awful smell: the disgusting act of homeless people fornicating, or you Pink Belly. Unfortunately for me, it had to be you."

"Star Monkey?!" Red Belly called out to this long-time prick in his side. "Mr. Slave called he wants his leather jacket back."

"Oh yeah, fuck face? Well Kim Kardashian's genitalia called and it wants the smell of an over-hyped cock back!" yelled back Hunter.

"Do you get satellite with those things on your face or are you that obnoxious?"

"Yeah I get the Lifetime channel and their new show 'Something Smells Fishy: My Battle With Intense Vaginal Odor hosted by Pink Belly'."

The two stared at one another for an interminable length of time, electricity budding and springing forth making the air tense. But Hunter had no time to waste on this trash. Red Belly and his boys were best left to seagulls, not for a wolf like him.

"Listen, Pinkbelly." Hunter began.

"RED BELLY!"

"Whatever!" Hunter said. "You're more of an inconvenience today than you usually are and I aint having it. So, usual ultimatum: the fun way," Hunter held up his left hand clad in the red riding glove. "Or my way." He threatened bringing his polished steel right fist up.

"Both compel me to incur irreversible damage upon your face, but the fun way at least makes you looks halfway cool."

"Piss off, Star Monkey." Red Belly took a step which crushed the ground beneath a webbed foot. "Gotta alotta nerve calling Big Time Red Belly out, 'specially since we aint seen you in five years."

Red Belly's boys regained their confidence and started to move closer to Hunter. Many had been spawned in the years while Hunter had been gone, so they wouldn't have any clue as to who he was. Good. They'd be sloppy, overconfident. Make fighting'em all the easier.

"Big Time is a whole other level. Fun way, your way, don't matter, there's just my way. My way in El Rey! And aint no one gonna take nothing from me. Not you, not the Golden Shower, not these piss-ant little chumps." Belly dug more of his weight into Mal's chest, causing him to scream in pain. "If you hunger for what you see, you'll take it eventually here. How it's always worked. Just know you better not take it from me. That's where they crossed the line."

"So 'my' way, then?" Hunter threatened, clenching both fists as he saw the Sea-Men inching closer. "Bene. Oh and uh, Big Red? Watch your six."

As Red Belly was distracted, he didn't notic the Atlantean half-breed sneaking behind him. With a deafening blow, Kaldur brought both his water-bearers down in bio-electrically charged strike to the Guardian shield, driving it deep into Belly's shoulder and dislocating the left arm. Belly screamed in agony as he released Mal from his weight, then turned to face Kaldur with a spinning backfist from hell. Kaldur blocked the shot with his forearms, but the brute still had so much strength that Kaldur went flying back.

"What the hell are you all waiting for, get that Star Monkey and bring me his head!" Red Belly called out as he spat up blood.

 _"I love my way."_ Hunter stared down the Red Belly brood. There was a good football field's worth of trash he was going to have to much through, but it's what the job entails some times and he certainly loved this part, the part where he gets to make ugly faces even uglier. Singing to the mixtape was a nice way to blow off steam. This was better.

The Sea-Men gathered were hesitant to act. Hearing their boss cry out like that paralyzed them all and made them afraid; he never screamed in pain like that before in his life. That shit was unsettling. More so than the leather-wearing air sucker who seemingly disappeared before their very eyes... No, actually that was pretty unsettling too. Especially since he re-appeared right before a particularly large and ugly, hammer-headed Sea-Man.

"Sup, you ugly mother fu-." Hunter smiled.

A bestial roar erupted from the Sea-Man as he bellowed in rage and dragged his fist upwards into that shit-eating face. But too slow. The air-monkey dodged the punch and embedded his metal right arm straight into his gut. It caught him off-guard, the shot reverberating his entire body. Everything seemed to be fine honestly, until something felt like it was about to burst inside him.

"Bang." Hunter said before the Sea-Man exploded in a burst.

"Aw hell! He took out Chum-lee!" Cried one of the Sea-Men

"That little mother-effer, dude. Get him!"

Hunter smiled as the rush began. Three charged at once trying to get the drop on him, but he was ready. Sweeping low with his leg, all three got knocked into the air before he sent three well-placed punches into each. The Sea-Men were catapulted into the throng of their brothers as the rest began to press. A cross-kick aimed for his chest he dodged, along with an elbow hurled like discus aimed for his face. Stopping in front of another Sea-Man, Hunter laid an uppercut into him that set the beast flying high. Without missing a beat, Hunter launched himself after him, grasped at the ankles of his prey, and violently twisted to hurl him down. The Sea-Man's deafening crash was loud as his flesh hit pavement, made even louder when Hunter delivered a punch causing a giant crater shattering underneath them.

The force of the blow knocked back many Sea-Men as they struggled to regroup, save for one large enough to weather the shock. Hunter barely noticed the giant's fist come as it dragged along the ground, digging a nice-sized trench before flinging up into the side of a nearby building. Hunter felt the crack of stone as he collided, but shot out fast from the rubble, a trail of dust lagging behind. Stopping himself in the midst of his flight, he hovered above the street before winding his right arm fast and hurtling back down, felling the leviathan below with a furious elbow.

As Hunter leaped down he soon found himself surrounded and mobbed by frantic fish dog-piling him, biting him, giving into the feeding frenzy. At first he was smacking them around like a pinball machine, knocking their balls to and fro, but soon the mosh pit washed over him like a tidal wave. A tidal wave made of fists and rancid breath, of awkwardly confused faces and "bro grabs" being had all around. But a glow made its way through the mess and in a glorious flash of awesomeness Hunter punched his way to freedom, causing it to rain Sea-Men. And that is gross.

The remaining gaggle of fish backed away as they saw themselves being outgunned and outbro-ed - and that's saying a lot coming from a bunch of juicing fish. Hunter knew he was burning daylight and needed to end this fast, hit the kill switch in this set and get to moseying on. Hunter grabbed on the top of his gauntlet and cocked it back like a shotgun. Then widening his stance and bringing back his fist, he locked his body into place as smoke gathered, the air around him beginning to simmer, even his very breath seeming like fire.

"Damned monkey!" Red Belly yelled out, sucking in as much air as he could, puffing himself up to an even greater size. His spikes grew with rapacious energy, his muscles engorged so much by adrenaline that the Guardian shield embedded in his shoulder was pushed out. "There's only room enough for one big fish in this pond," he yelled with eyes lustful for conquest, "and it's me!"

"Shitty thing about being a big fish in a small pond, Belly? No matter what, their ass better stay there, cuz if not, they get eaten " Hunter said watching the Sea-Men frantically darting back and forth between him and their boss. In a flash Hunter rotated his hips, driving his arm and waist forward like a machine, the gathered momentum from his gauntlet pushing him forward.

Rippling strings of fire ignited as the steel gauntlet raced across the concrete. He wasn't as fast as the Flash, but the burst of speed caught Red Belly and his boys off-guard. Hunter was gathering momentum as he sped past, his speed becoming so great he became a mirage moving past, Sea-Men being pulverized with shots they never saw coming. Hunter made sure to clear his path of the rest of them to get to his main kill, the main one needing to be brought down.

Red Belly waited for him as shattering glass clattered to the street, falling from abandoned cars and nearby buildings as the sonic boom hit. But the Big Time Red Belly was unfazed even as his boys were being throttled in front of him.

"My fists are the swells of the sea, my teeth the gnashing rocks of the shore, my strength the fury of a tsunami!" Yelling as he drew a scaly fist back to unleash the holy fury of the deep against this chump. Belly could feel the searing heat press against him as his arch-nemesis appeared in front of him smirking, the wind from his halt blowing dust against his sea-weed robes.

"I'm the apex of evolution; the alpha male by whom all are subjected to as the pinnacle of Mother Nature's creations. I'll wash away the disgusting stench of your species with the flood of my omnipotent Sea-Men!" He yelled bringing back a gargantuan fist for a killshot down. "Be gone Star Monkey!"

His fist cratered like a comet as it smashed down, erupting a geyser of stone and steel rebar into the air reaching like a stairway to heaven. The smiling visage of Star Wolf contrasted with the fanatical snarl of Red Belly's O-face, so happy he finally got the bastard. He got him this time. He knew he did, this wasn't like before. Belly was faster, stronger, better, harder than he ever was. But yet...

Belly's throbbing satisfaction quickly deflated into flaccid dismay. When the dust settled, the air-sucker stood dead center in the crater. Still smiling. Still confident. Absolutely untouched. _"No,"_ Belly thought. " _No! I missed! How could I miss?"_ But soon Hunter's form rippled, his countenance blurring, and then quickly fading away.

"No," Red Belly was incredulous, "an afterimage."

Positively and absolutely blue-balled at what he perceived to be his penultimate moment before his climactic victory. As was the case so many times in the past, this cock blocked him yet again.

"Hey Fat Belly!" Hunter called from Red Belly's left.

Now, fish generally have rod cells and cone cells in their retinas for scotopic and photopic vision. Most species can see in color. Some are even able to see ultraviolet light. But all that shit didn't matter. For Fat Bell - Dammit! - Red Belly, whether it be in photopic, scotopic, or Black Optic, he could see the oncoming fist in all optics.

"Open your mouth and say 'Ah!' cuz you're about to get the five point fist exploding face technique!" Yelled Hunter.

And as the gauntlet ignited in fire, the fist searing in heat and the smell of fried fish wrapping around his nostrils, one glum reflection ran across Red Belly's mind before the punch came. "And I thought today was going so well..."

Now, who's to say how many fists fate has in store for us. Whether they come courtesy of a playground bully aiming directly for your face, or an adventurous partner in the bedroom aiming directly for your rear and or crotchal region, the fists shall come. Red Belly's confusion at witnessing the fist primed for his oral orifice should've been expected. But whether it came from his complete and utter lack of intelligent thought - or fear - not really how Big Time imagined his death.

Maybe he should've chosen the fun way?

The attack barely grazed Belly's cheek, but in that span of minuscule time where people nary give the faintest thought, where the world seems to pause at a baby's first breath and a man's last, where an old soul in New Orleans laments the fall of soulful jazz and a pre-tween cries at the Bieb's oh so talented use of pan flutes in his songs, a shockwave jet broke the sound barrier against Red Belly's face. Muscles stretched, tendons strained, scales ripped as Red Belly's crowned head flew from muscular shoulders and went lolling across the ground. With all their being left was his grossly twitching body still standing.

"Yeah that's gross." Hunter said, gauntlet still smoking. Blood continued to spurt in small gushes from the monster's neck, Red Belly's belly literally beginning to pale from its premature life ejaculation. "And that's even grosser."

* * *

Hunter didn't pay mind to the damage he wrought on the city - the cops who filtered back in the area and firemen can do clean-up. And the mayor can get the money to fix everything here. Like that old theatre who's windows got smashed, or that little cafe with the fat, little, wooden Italian chef who miraculously survived everything. It was their job to care about this stuff, like it was the media's job to annoy the hell outta people after they do anything. God, already they were clogging the area. No doubt they wanted to talk him, but nuh uh. Not his prerogative to care. What was though was checking on the blonde-haired, dark-skinned Atlantean boy who nearly got gutted by Belly. The kid was still breathing when he walked over to him. Thank Jesus! If he wasn't that woulda made a shitty day even shittier.

"Usually new kids don't pick fights on their first day." Hunter said offering his left hand. Kaldur, just about getting over the effects of Red Belly's toxin, took it but was pulled up with a less than generous tug to his feet.

"We had no choice." Kaldur said hoarsely.

"Yeah, me too, I guess." Hunter nodded and looked Kaldur over. "Consider yourself lucky. Not many people can take that many shots from Red Belly and live to brag about it."

"I won't be bragging any time soon." Kaldur rubbed his abysmally sore neck, still trying to loosen itself from the monster fish's titanic grip. He looked up at the grizzled face of his helper, a slack smile and overlarge pointy sunglasses covering his face."But thank you," Kaldur said trying to catch his breath.

"What would Jesus do?" Hunter shrugged. "It's all part of the job, or something like it. You're new here, aren't you? And Atlantean? Aquaman sent you."

It seemed more like an accusation than a question, and Kaldur hesitated before nodding, reluctant to divulge too much. "Guess maybe you could say that. Kaldur'ahm." Kaldur figured it would be safe to give his real name instead of his alias - perhaps that way he could hopefully think he was just another Atlantean come to the surface. Thankfully the man looked to not care

"Star Wolf." Hunter said with an easy smile and shaking Kaldur's hand. "Sounds gay, but back in the nineties stupid shiz like that sounded way cool, so." Nodding over to Mal being tenderly held by Karen and the rest of Beta looking over him, he said. "He's lucky, too. Can still hear his heartbeat, but it's faint. He needs medical attention - frankly, I think all of you do."

"You saved our lives." Kaldur said. "All of ours. What you did..it was... amazing." Kaldur leaned forward in pain.

One of his ribs had to be broken, but just the thought of recalling that amazing speed, the hot tinge of heat emanating from him when he fought, and the force from his punches. The air burst and power flowing from them, smashing craters into the horde of Sea-Men and cement alike. Simply an awesome display of power. But Kaldur's shock was laughed off by the Star Wolf.

"Heh! 'Amazing'?" The hero joked again with his easy-going smile, so unlike Booster's in that it seemed so much more genial and natural. "That's a strong word for a first date, man. What I did and how I did it...," Hunter brought up his metal gauntleted right fist, made a punching gesture before shrugging his shoulders again. "...It's all in the wrist. Besides, you and your friends softened him up plenty before I even got here. So, no biggie."

"Even still I am glad that you did."

"A lot of good it'll do you..." A gurgled voice came a ways away from them. It seemed the Big Time Red Belly still had enough scorn in him to spew venom. "It won't matter in the end..."

Star Wolf sucked on his teeth loudly in disgust. "Hey, Belly ya dead yet?"

Red Belly's eyes glossed over in a white shroud and the purple of his lips lost their illustrious color, but a smile still crept along them in a macabre grin. "Big Time aint over; not by a long shot...*cough* *cough*...Ack!"

Hunter walked over and planted a boot onto Red Belly's skull.

"Most would be in awe at this biological anomaly, of you being able to speak without your diaphragm, Belly." Hunter pressed down with his steel heel. "I, on the other hand, am debating whether I should just punt you into the bay and send you towards the light, big guy."

Red Belly's mouth oozed with dark scarlet blood as he threatened, "Head towards the light? Heh, you don't know the half of it. Keep talking Star Monkey, but the light aint got nothing on me. Not anymore. But you?...*cough* Heh! It's all fun and games out here, till they wanna see you bleed..*cough* *cough*...soon you'll all be on your knees...Till kingdom come, Monkey, his will be done...*cough*...till-till kingdom come...hi-his will be...his will be..."

Red Belly stopped when the last vestiges of his life ebbed away. Star Wolf scoffed at what his fallen foe had to say, but Kaldur listened intently.

"Wow. The most terrifyingly cryptic message I've ever heard not from a fortune cookie. Hey, kid, that mean anything to you?" Wolf asked Kaldur.

Mentioning the light was a surefire way to kick start Kaldur's curiosity, but as of right now the Light hadn't been considered a known topic floating around the meta community. And though Kaldur was thankful to the man, he wouldn't go as far as to say he trusted him with any sort of information. "No." he said shaking his head.

Hunter took a long pause to scan Kaldur's face, as if knowing there was something he was hiding. But Hunter shrugged his shoulders again and simply said "Good. Means I can do this." before punting the head away high into the sky. Besides, Hunter had more things to worry about.

The time was **6:36.**

"Listen, Kaldur." Hunter addressed Aqualad; the kid looked strong, his Atlantean attributes would kick in at any moment, right? That's how their powers worked. "Listen, ummmm. Usually I'd probably stick around and make sure you guys are okay, but uhhhhhh...yeah." Hunter jerked his head behind Kaldur to notice various news crews already arriving. Kaldur took heed as well and knew it wasn't worth sticking around - too many already knew the look of Aqualad and Kid Flash. If anyone were to see them here, it might not be good. They needed to clear out and fast.

"I understand. We need to be off as well." Kaldur nodded as he cricked his back, audible pops releasing the pressure there; some of his more superficial cuts were already healing thank Poseidon.

"Good, I'ma skedaddle, leave you and the golden Crayola crayon over there to shmooze it with the media."

Kaldur quirked his eyebrows in confusion at that.

"Crayon?" Turning around, Kaldur noticed a sight he really didn't expect to see: Booster Gold. Fine and in good condition, it seemed, chatting away heartily with news reporters and smiling his trademark grin at the cameras. Kaldur sighed at the sight.

"Oh and one more thing..." Said Star Wolf beaming at Kaldur before taking a bow. "Welcome to El Rey. Shit gets worse here every day, so heads up." The hero known as Star Wolf punched into the air, launching himself high before adjusting his body and punching again, sending him away from Kaldur's sight.

 _"So it's not flight?"_ Kaldur wondered. A gripping pain seared up his side again. Yep, definitely broken rib and needing some attention. He needed to pack up Beta while Booster still distracted the reports. He was good for something Kaldur thought before hurrying over to Mal. Artemis was already checking on him and Karen knelt beside as Bart kept her steady. A band of the walking wounded, terrific. Would make it that much harder to get to their Zeta exit point. Which was so nicely put in a dumpster.

* * *

 **The Lighthouse**

 **19:15 PDT**

As soon as Beta returned to the Lighthouse, Kaldur made sure everyone's injuries were tended to with immediate care. Artemis took care of Bart who had gotten himself a few cuts, a few bruises and a smashed pair of goggles. Nothing overly concerning for a speedster.

"Crazy out there, I know, but did you see me? Ha! Sea peeps had no idea at one point. Totally crashed their mode, until I crashed. But overall I was like 'phoosh!', and they were like 'Whaa?', and then I was all like 'skidoosh!'. It was totally- Ow!" Bart smarted when the alcohol was applied to a scrape on his elbow.

"Was that how it was?" Artemis laughed.

"Yeah, I mean, a little I guess. Maybe when the big one clocked me in the face..." Bart's smirk quickly dissipated as Artemis placed a bandage on him, something else bothering him more than the application of hydrogen peroxide. "But seriously, though...Was I cra - erm - I mean, 'good'? Did Kid Flash do a good job?"

Artemis saw the look in Bart's face. He rarely showed it, maybe because he felt it would look like he couldn't shoulder the responsibility, but anyone who really bothered could tell Bart was struggling. Struggling to honor two legacies - his grandfather's and Wally's - while at the same time retaining his happy-go-lucky self. A tall order for any thirteen year old, and way too unfair now that Artemis saw. Before when he came back to the past, Bart ran to solve problems he more or less already knew the answers to: stop Neutron, save Flash, avert The Reach's takeover. But now was uncharted territory. Now he ran to forge his own path, one where he didn't know where it would take him. And that was frightening.

"I think Kid Flash did a great job." Artemis placed her hand on Bart's shoulder. "They'd be proud. Both of them."

Bart smiled at the reassurance. "Thanks - Ow!." Artemis slapped another swab of hydrogen peroxide onto Bart's knee which surged tingles of pain up his spine.

"Tch, my favorite hat is probably being digested in some nasty fish's stomach." Virgil complained as he kept playing with his unkempt dreads now draped over his face.

"No worries, my nappy headed compadre. Booster Gold endorses many an outfitter which would be more than perfect to cater to your urban-accented fashion sense, yo. So stick with me and chiggety chillax -"

"Stick with you! How bout you stick with us?" Virgil rounded on the gold clad super. "Before I even address that stereotypically offensive assumption of yours about my style, heck were you when we needed you? You get boosted up into a building and that's it, gone, don't see you 'til after the dust settles. Right when you're smiling it up for the cameras."

Booster Gold sweat-dropped for a moment, but soon regained his composure with one of his perfectly white, unnaturally straight smiles.

"Beating the bad guys is just one half the battle, my amigo. The other half is perception." Booster said oddly authoritatively as he rubbed the top of Virgil's head. "Villainy and violence lurk around every corner in El Rey - even in the sea, as you found out today, unfortunately."

Booster removed his hand and caused more of Virgil's dreads to cover his face but not his scowl.

"Don't kid yourself, El Rey is not a safe place. Here, much like most other cities, safety is not a reality but a perception. People know there's danger, but regardless, want to feel safe even if it might not really be true. We as superheroes have a responsibility to enforce that perception no matter what. And in order for us to do that, we must maintain a clean, pristine and pure image at all times. Like the symbols of hope we ought to represent. To show people no matter how dire the situation, we always have it under control. I tactically withdrew with full knowledge camera crews would be on-site to ask question afterwards, and so I meant to present the symbol of hope Booster Gol - erm, I mean, 'we', represent for the people of El Rey "

"Under control? Dude, I don't know about you, but we certainly didn't have things under control." Bart pointed out after Artemis was done with him. "Not until that other guy came along. Absolutely crashed everyone's mode."

"Yeah, who was he anyway?" Virgil questioned as he wiped his hair out of his face yet again. "Sure was helpful."

The last comment was directed straight at Booster who's smile twitched for an odd-second. He gave a half-hearted "pshh" at hearing mention of the other super and tried to play it off as nothing. But Artemis was astute enough to catch onto that.

"Besides," Booster continued, addressing them all in the room. " We don't wanna let people onto the fact we've got Leaguers stationed here in the city, do we? Wouldn't look good at all."

 _"Well that sounded like a threat."_ Artemis noted. As did Virgil. But unlike her, he didn't do nearly so well at hiding his disdain for Booster Gold, gritting his teeth and balling up his fists so hard they turned white.

"With my Booster Gold endorsement, though, rest assured no suspicious eyes have been cast in your direction."

"Wow," Artemis got up from where she was and proceeded to walk up the stairs. "So relieved we've got the Booster Gold endorsement."

Goddamit was she tired. She wanted sleep. Not the kind of sleep that could be disturbed either. The 'dead guy' kind of sleep, the one so deep you need a whole gaggle of annoying Georgia kids with sticks to poke her awake. That and she wanted to get away from Gold - she knew if she stayed in the same place with him any longer, she was going to finish the job she started earlier. Fresh air could put her at ease and maybe some of that Vietnamese tea her mother had given her last time she was in Gotham. Then she could find a bed, call it hers, and die in a pile there.

* * *

Karen's cut above her eyebrow was thankfully smaller than Kaldur imagined, and his rib - though painful - at least got manageable with the pain meds. But all of their focus and attention was turned to Mal, even in spite of his insistence he was fine.

"I'm fine, baby, I'm fine." He tried to reassure Karen, but she wasn't having it.

"Si'down and shutup Mal, and for God's sake let me see." Far be it from him to contend with what his girlfriend commanded, he couldn't deny her even when healthy. Kaldur tried to ease the Guardian armor off his friend, but there were too many broken bones and bruises for him not to feel any pain. Karen gasped and tried to hold back the worry, Kaldur knew she hated seeing Mal like this. He was tough, surviving being tossed in a car up into a building, but he took a fierce beating. All because he saved Kaldur's life. He would never be able to forgive himself for this.

Karen and Kaldur aided Mal gingerly into the rejuvenation pod. He was going to have to stay there for at least 36 hours, until his right ulna and radius were healed. And the gash in his stomach didn't look all to good either. The vicious attack from one of Red Belly's henchman wasn't fatal because of Mal's armor, but Kaldur knew never to take chances.

"Not bad for a guy without any super powers." Mal forced a smile through the oxygen mask. It made Kaldur feel more guilty than relieved. He placed a hand on his friend before the clear glass of the pod slid over.

"Your courage and strength do us all honor, Mal." Mal turned his weak grin to his Karen who was trying hard not to cry.

"Ain't no tears, now. Just you wait. In a day, I'm gonna take you on the most romantic California date this Rhode Island boy can offer."

Karen smiled back at Mal before planting a gentle kiss on his cheek. "Chinese it is then."

"She knows me too well." He smiled as the pod door closed and an anesthetic gas was released. Mal's eyes slowly shut as he was put under and fell fast asleep. Karen's hand lingered on the glass for a moment, and Kaldur wished he could say something that could at least ease her worry, but she never gave him the chance. Her eyes stung as she drilled holes into Kaldur.

"What happened out there?" Karen's voice made Kaldur flinch.

"We saved a city." He said irresolutely.

Karen quivered with anger, fear, fatigue, most like all three Kaldur supposed. "We saved a city, but nearly at a cost I will never be ready to pay. Kaldur, I almost lost someone I could never live without, for a city I've been in only a day! How am I supposed to concentrate knowing we came so close to putting Mal's name up on a wall and his image floating in some garden? What did you get us into? Why are we here? And who the hell is Booster Gold?"

Kaldur looked away ashamed at not knowing what to say. He was so tired. Couldn't she see that in him. What could she want him to tell her to make it okay, because right now even Kaldur was having his doubts. Being a leader was becoming more taxing by the day, especially when it meant seeing your friends having to suffer for it.

Karen turned on Kaldur as she pulled up a chair to sit by Mal. Looking at his sleeping form as it was caroused by the healing gel.

"I just don't have the luxury to lose someone I love, Kaldur. You've got to know what that feels like, don't you? So please. Tell me everything will be all right, that I can trust you aren't using us like how Dick used you." Karen looked at him pleadingly, wanting some sort of answer that could out her ragged mind to rest.

Kaldur stared at the floor.

Yes, he did know what it felt like to lose love in this life, especially a love whom the world could not even fill their loss when they passed. Lights never seemed to be as bright, air never as refreshing and food became dull to taste...But Kaldur knew the life of a superhero beget sacrifice, too. They all did. And he wanted to tell her this. To help her understand his predicament, his pain, to see the world they all chose to live in does not give much luxury at all. But all he could come out and say was "I'm sorry, Karen..."

And he meant that.

"...For everything."

He walked over to the door leading to the observation deck. Before walking out he told her that "Yes, she could trust him and that 'yes', everything was going to be okay."

That sadly he wasn't so sure about, but he tried not to make it sound as hollow to her as it did to him.

* * *

The League saw manning these bases, known and unknown, located in El Rey and around the globe as a lesser evil compared to a far worse alternative. If Batgirl's lead on Savage is correct, they can leave nothing to chance.

Yet that didn't this any easier on Kaldur.

A bright moon shown over a glittering city as it came to life, the night aglow with so many purples, pinks, golds and blues, the peacocking of a city built off neon colors. It reminded Kaldur almost of Poseidonis and made him wish he could be go there. For a quick respite, but he knew he couldn't. The Watchtower required he report back as soon as he was done here. Doubtless they would want to here of the battle between them and the Tritonians - 'specially his liege lord. And of course, the ominous warning murmured by Red Belly,

"Till kingdom come, his will be done..." Kaldur voiced out. El Rey was turning into a more interesting spot than he ever could have predicted.

"We need to talk." Kaldur turned to see the steel visage of Artemis coming at him. For a moment he thought he was going to get socked like Booster Gold earlier that day, but Artemis merely found a spot next to him on the railing. She looked out over the San Emilia Bay as stoic as this lighthouse would've been back in its heyday, blonde hair being kicked up by the wind and lips pouting in a frown. "Rough day." She said.

"We've had rougher."

"Yeah we did," Artemis turned her dark grey eyes to Kaldur, "but at least we were always prepped when getting thrown from the frying pan into the fire."

Kaldur wanted to look away from Artemis.

"You could've at least, I don't know, 'regaled' us while on our nature walk on what to expect, or at least indulge a little at what a complete cock of a nanny you and the Batman chose for us."

"Booster was my call and not Batman's. If you have any qualms take them up with me."

"Oh trust me, I am." Artemis walked over and turned Kaldur around so he could face her. By Neptune she was stronger than she looked. Must come with being Sportsmaster's daughter. That and the temperament issue. Booster was right about that.

"I know you didn't want to get saddled with a team so soon Artemis, but if this is you wanting to walk away, I'm sorry, what do you want me to do? Tell you 'yes you can go' or order you to stay? What will make you feel better?"

Artemis shook her head in disgust, her frown getting deeper. It made her look so much like her sister it wasn't even funny.

"What will make me feel better is if you start trusting me like you did Tigress, back when we were twenty thousand leagues undercover and I was the only person you could confide in. Ever since we came back, all you've done is treat me like just another member of the team, like I'm the same old 'Artemis'. I'm not, Kaldur. I know why you enjoy putting on the uniform, but as far I was concerned, I was retired...And now I'm not."

"Then why did you come back, Artemis? Was it for avenging Wally or your personal vendetta against the Light? Can I trust you here with the others knowing you won't compromise them to follow your grudge." Kaldur knew he took a very deep plunge going down this route. It was a deep cut and digging the knife in wasn't going to help him out any.

Artemis stared daggers at Kaldur, but he was so tired it didn't matter anymore. In fact, he wanted her to punch him. He felt like he deserved it. It also might make him wake up. She came close to him so that their faces were centimeters apart. There was little love save for an intense fierceness that made Kaldur's blood run cold. She was right about one thing, she was no longer the same Artemis he knew way back when.

"My vendetta is all about getting revenge for Wally. The Reach is the reason why he isn't here. And who was it that brought the Reach to Earth? The Light." Artemis brushed against Kaldur's chest as she turned around to leave. "You want me to cramp down in a dingy lighthouse, fine; you want me to follow orders and save the world, gotcha; but I am going to have my reckoning with the Light one way or the other. So no matter what clandestine operation you and Batman want to run here, just know you two won't get in the way between me and them. Trust that." Artemis turned to give Kaldur another stony look. "And I won't step over my friends for that to happen. Because unlike you and Dick, though I missed the life, I don't put it above that of others. Wally thought the same, too. I was just too stupid to appreciate the sentiment while he was still here."

With that she turned back inside, leaving Kaldur alone to wallow in the quagmire of his self-loathing. He had lost his fair share of fights, but none felt so bitter as this. The only other person who he needed to be on his side, basically said she didn't trust him to have her best interests at heart or the others for that matter. Dick must've been questioned nonstop like this when in command, and now that Kaldur held the reigns he felt himself getting pulled faster down.

The cool steel felt nice against his palms as he leaned back. How bad did he just want to take a dive right now and wash himself in the cool water of the bay, forget everything for a few moments and just let the day pass.

But Kaldur knew there would be many more difficult days ahead. They weren't out of the jungle yet, and if Star Wolf or Red Belly were anyone to go by, things had the high probability of getting worse.

* * *

 **Salem Heart Academy, El Rey**

 **Time: Too Late**

Of all the stupid powers his gauntlet gave him, flight was 'oh so' conveniently not one of them. He could only punch his way through the air so far before his shoulder felt like an MLB pitcher's, and even that act was draining. He had to disengage the gauntlet because it was eating too much away from his energy, so that when he landed five blocks away from the school and needed to run himself the rest of the way, might as well been a Spartan race for Hunter.

Panting like no tomorrow, legs burning with whatever acid making it a bitch to even jog, Hunter heaved and hawed with such a pain in his chest he thought was going to die before even making it. That would be rich. Tomorrow's headlines: "Red Belly Beatdown by Returning Star Wolf". Underscored by, "local rockstar found dead three blocks away from children's school, the sordid story of Hunter Loredo Windstar." Print that shit, huh.

As Hunter turned the corner the dark and empty parking lot came into view, the schoolyard quiet and still as a peaking moon started to glow in a darkening sky.

"Oh no..." Hunter said breathless, hanging on the black wrought-iron fence surrounding the school grounds. "...I missed it."

He walked steady towards the large, marble white steps and look dejectedly at the banner hanging over large, green-painted wooden doors. The breeze caught and ruffled it's length as "Salem Heart Academy Talent Show" read clearly on the white sheet. Hunter dropped to sit on the steps, head hung low. "Goddammit," he thought.

Hunter knew he'd never be in the running for best dad in the world - fat chance of that ever happening. But never tell him he didn't at least try. Yet trying seems pretty empty if you're left with more broken promises than kept ones. And that's what killed him: that even when he did try, it still wasn't good enough. Made him question if he could ever be good enough.

Hunter started laughing at his bad luck, incredulous coming all this way for an empty parking lot and a sinking feeling of guilt. Shit wouldn't hurt so bad if he didn't care, but he did. Too much. It wouldn't matter if he was like all the other dead-beat fathers out there, not caring about their kids lives and whatnot, passing them off to some other shlub to take care of. But he loved her, damn it all, he loved her too much to keep disappointing her.

He keeps coming back to Earth specifically for that reason...

"Dad blew it again. Just like the last time...I'm so sorry."

What's the point of being a superhero if the trade-off was you were a crappy parent? What good was there in having power to save the world, if the one person you care about more than anything on it isn't happy?

"Awwwww, shit." Chalk it up to another person Hunter's letdown in his past. Then realization hit Hunter again. "And I destroyed the van... Fuck."


	5. Smiles, Scowls and Snarls

**New York City**

 **Nov. 14; EDT 12:00**

The lights of the studio blacked out the audience, turning them into shadows boring holes into Lex as he sat across two middle-aged tv hostesses clinging on to whatever limelight still shining their way. One had the look of a burnt carrot lost on a cosmetic surgery table, the other a skinny blonde scarecrow who struggled to find her brain through the ten Long Islands she had this morning. Both didn't matter to Lex. Being there was simply a formality. It was the shadows out in that anonymous ocean he needed to please. They were his strength, his source of power, and he could sense them all. Looking to him for answers, for surety, for strength.

But more importantly, for entertainment.

"And so I says to the mechanic, 'Well, sir, I know what caused the gas pocket to form.' And he turns to look at me, puzzled as all hell, wondering what in the world could've done that kind of damage to a six-hundred and seventy-five thousand dollar, custom-built ride, and I tell him: 'It's simple, I'm a politician and I'm full of it.' "

Laughter broke as Lex regaled them with this story for what seemed to be the umpteenth time. It was fine. Repetition is frequently appreciated and seldom noticed. Whatever won him the court of public opinion. Alls he needed do was smile, appear on the Grace & Kelly show on Mornin' America and have himself a ball.

To which he did.

Miranda Grace slapped Lex playfully on his arm as she barely contained herself, her bad Botox job nearly coming undone in the process. "Oh, Mr. Luthor," she went in a husky voice sounding like it came straight from the smocking section of a restaurant, "a personality along to go with that fantastic mind of yours. How do you honestly find the ability to stay so energetic? And so fit, am I right ladies, am I right?"

A chorus of 'whooo's" came forth as Miranda did her customary flirting with the guest, but you could wheel out the Killer Whale from the BlackFish documentary and she'd probably flirt with that too. It was a gimmick. All of it was. But Lex smiled something fierce, a smile which could've made even Prince Charming cut out his own heart and eat it.

"El Toro energy drinks and a corset." He said getting another laugh from the audience.

Lex took another sip from his coffee mug before Kelly Joscelyn posed a question about how far his campaign trail has taken him, from the bargain bin section of the political dollar store to an abrupt and sudden surge to the forefront as the election looms ever closer. He nodded his head, knowing full well Kelly was the more seasoned reporter here. Even though morning television had dulled her fangs, he knew the middle-aged blonde still could take a nibble every now and then.

"Truthfully Kelly I believe it's because I know how to speak to people - not just the upper class, not just the lower class; not just the politicians, the lobbyists, the naysayers; the single mothers, the stay-at-home fathers, the disenchanted college grads or the struggling laypeople. But to everyone. Heck, even the classless. And the reason is because...I'm honest."

A lone voice yelled out his appreciation at that statement, beginning a round of applause which Lex humbly acknowledged with a slight tip of his shining head.

"Some people have a mind to think honesty and politics are mutually exclusive to one another." Kelly pointed out matter-of-factly.

"If you're counting the bedroom, maybe." Miranda pulled her taught, burnt skin into what Lex thought was a smile, the people eating up the joke as they laughed again. He played it off, too. Laughing and bobbing his head with a few forced chuckles just to keep up the facade.

"Usually that's the sort of thing that gets politicians in trouble." Lex laughed it up with that one too, receiving another slap on the arm from Miranda as she cocked her head back nearly falling over. The people hooted and hollered as they ate up Lex's quick wit.

"And what leads you to believe you're more honest than your two opponents, Lex? As in to say, what credentials do you wish people to look at when they see Lex Luthor compared to...Samuel Garret, or Gov. Jolene Mendez - you're two opponents?" Kelly asked as soon as the mob died down. Lex smiled at her doggedness; she was trying so hard to get that Emmy, more so than the last time he appeared on here.

" _My credentials are I don't host a middling noon talk show -_ It's not about credentials, Ms. Joscelyn, because 'over-qualifications' are overrated; it's simply about the drive. I drive to search for solutions, to find them and to implement them. I don't let problems dictate me, I dictate the problems. Plain and simple. But unfortunately we live in a world rife with problems..." Lex turned directly to the audience, at all those blank faces who came to see him. (No use denying it, they did; Lex was the reason why they're here.)

"Just yesterday there was an attack on a west coast city in southern California," He said with iron in his voice, "by the name of El Rey." A few mumbling whispers were heard as people agreed. "A well-known port city, known for its beautiful beaches and boardwalk, the Manifest Destiny Bridge and the Paragon Tower. A melting pot built off the ideals of opportunity, equality and perseverance. Ideals which aren't uniquely American traits either, but the traits indicative of mankind as a whole. El Rey is home to a number of different cultures and people, Grace & Kelly, people to whom I've learned have lost close to $333 million in property damages. Money which is going to come out of state budget and their own pockets ...To me, that sounds like a problem.

The audience hung on to his every word as he talked straight down to them in a language everyone understood. He emphasized fear, helplessness, the rapacious delight by which a city was nearly destroyed by a dastardly creature. But of course, Lex was a master storyteller, and ended his impassioned yarn with that ever sweet carrot people love to chase: Hope.

"Which is why my Lexor Charity Foundation is going to fully reimburse the city of El Rey for repair costs and reconstruction of its Downtown area. And for all the families whose homes or businesses were affected in the attack, we will financially support until they are able to get back on their feet."

The cheering and applause was almost too deafening for Lex as people gave him his standing ovation. Again, humbly taking the attention with a meek wave and nod, but knowing all too well it was exactly what he needed. Grace & Kelly may not have been good for much, but they were good for ratings.

"Oh my Gawd, how charitable are we?" Miranda clapped loudly, the numerous rings on her fingers and bracelets on her wrists clanging loudly.

"It's not charity, Miranda. Opportunity is American made, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the people." Lex said it so sweetly, so innocently, it made you want to believe him.

"Amazing, simply amazing!" Kelly nearly lost herself she was getting so excited. Lex should hope so, because he might've just gotten her the Emmy that could validate her existence beyond the Chinese Whispers she slurps in her dressing room.

The room was a blast of excitement and joy as Lex Luthor again rose higher than his contemporaries, showing everyone exactly the kind of politician and leader he could be. He was getting an even bigger pop than when he went live with G. Gordon a few weeks ago, so much so even Mercy had to give a little smirk as she watched him beyond camera shot clapping dutifully.

It also made for quite the assurance for the phantom shadow which hovered just behind her. "Certainly knows how to get the mob going doesn't he, my dear?" A gentlemanly voice commented. It oozed aristocracy and contempt as his keen eyes scanned the rambunctious crowd of serfs. "Hm, they have no idea...Hah! Politics: Manipulation at its best, lying at its worst. The art of civilized bushwhacking. Amazing how easy manipulation is if you only add the courtesy of a pretty smile. Good. All the better for us. Will make things in El Rey go swimmingly, and for all others to follow in turn."

* * *

 **The Watchtower  
**

 _"...and I tell him: 'It's simple, we politicians are full of it."_

"Yeah, you're full of something all right," Canary said as she rolled her eyes. Lex Luthor hamming it up on morning television wasn't exactly rousing stuff. In fact, made her feel a sick wave of nausea that nearly made her hurl her breakfast up.

All around her a few members of the League who found themselves on the Watchtower deck cringed. They were impervious to Luthor's nonsense, but looking at how the people welcomed him and cheered him on, many started to think resisting his charm may be a super power in of itself.

"Insane." Rocket said in awe at how suave Luthor carried himself, so sure and so easygoing. And she thought Icon had a tough time keeping up his appearances in public. "It's like they just forgot everything. Don't they remember how much stupid stuff LexCorp was involved in with the Reach?"

"Saving the world goes a long way in righting past wrongs." Icon mentioned to his sidekick.

"Except for us, apparently. It only makes people trust us even less." Rocket sneered at Luthor's chummy attitude, which Canary could only agree to. Unsettling couldn't even describe the tendency for public opinion to ever shift away from the League in spite of their constant insistence on being saved. Sure it might've been a selfish notion, but seeing Luthor get the benefit of the doubt while the League was coming under increased surveillance and pressure from the US government, didn't make her job as acting League chairman any easier.

And worse is that she was expected back on Capitol Hill in the next four days, to prostrate herself in front of Congress yet again.

"You don't look well." a deep voice knocked Canary away from her unpleasant thoughts, her tired face meeting Martian Manhunter's. It was always so calm, so unflinching, yet she could see how his bright red eyes watched her intently with worry. "You're very pale, Canary. I think you would do well with more rest."

"There are better people than me doing far more and getting way less rest. I don't need it."

J'onn placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her anxiousness. He gripped tight on her leather jacket, but knowing full well that was far from a reprieve of what she had to deal with.

"Go home, Canary. A few days won't hurt. I can shoulder the load here a while, monitor things so they're all under control. Until, of course, when our acting chairman feels fit to come back." Canary snorted at J'onn's playful mention of her chairmanship.

"Acting chairman, tch! Still wanna punch Atom in his teeth for that. Well, if he had any teeth."

"Go." J'onn lightly pushed with a small smile, despite Dinah relenting slightly. "Head back to Starling City. I'll radio in Ollie to tell him you're heading back home."

"I get it, J'onn, I'm going." Dinah swatted J'onn's hand away, perturbed at the situation, and the Manhunter for making one. "And there's no need to tell Ollie I'm getting sent home sick from school. I can make my own damn bowl of soup."

"Oh I know." J'onn said, his alien features pulling his face into what Dinah could only imagine was a smile. "This is just a warning in case you do. Wouldn't want him to be surprised finding firetrucks outside the apartment."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

Dinah didn't appreciate the lack of faith in her cooking, from an alien nonetheless, yet did inwardly sigh with relief. Some R&R sounded nice. Though she didn't enjoy shirking off her duties to someone else - never did, even during her time as a bartender workign the late shifts, she did enjoy shirking off her clothes before entering a nice, steamy, bubbly Jacuzzi. Complete with Ocean Spray scented candles, and maybe even that Windstar album she picked up the other day, too.

Who's the alien to say that Ollie didn't like surprises. Maybe he should tell archer boy she'd be coming back home. Have him get to her faster. And maybe she could enjoy her man on her day off, too.

But while Black Canary moved her way to the teleporters and J'onn keeping a knowing eye on her as she left, Icon and Rocket continuing their conversation detailing the intricacies of American politics and public opinion, above the watch-deck in one of the many mess-hall rooms carved into the side of the meteor, Batman and Kaldur continued their conversation. About El Rey and Red Belly's parting warning.

"Till his kingdom come, his will be done...Those were the last words he said." Kaldur relayed the message from Red Belly to Batman, words which made it hard for him to sleep easy upon getting back to the Watchtower.

Sitting at one of the many table in the mess hall, Batman nodded his head taking in the information.

The novelty of seeing Batman eat lunch in a cafeteria was too weird for Kaldur to comprehend. Batman eating anything was almost too weird for Kaldur to comprehend, Kaldur believed he subsisted solely off protein bars and micro-naps since the first day he met him. Even Aquaman was leery about the 'man' designation in Batman. Yet here he was, sitting down with his hands clasped over a little tray of American Chop Suey, mulling over the prophetic warning uttered by a monster.

"First thing comes to mind is the Lord's Prayer." Batman said through his clasped hands. "A staple in Judeo-Christian faith. Not particularly something a thug like Red Belly would spout off."

"He made specific mention of the Light, or at least alluded to them heavily. Saying that they had 'nothing on him', or something to that extent. I believe he may have been in contact with them before we arrived, that our arrival was expected and his attack premeditated."

"..."

Kaldur hated it when Batman became the reclusive detective. When he enters that Batcave in his own mind, he tends to not allow others in just like the real one. Articulating his own answers and leaving everyone on a need-to-know basis. But Kaldur didn't want the Batman to shut him out, couldn't afford to. The others back in El Rey trusted him to look out for them, and damn it all, he was going to do just that. He needed to.

"Belly has an inferiority complex fit for an Arkham holding cell, and the strength where he ought to be in Belle Reve." Batman said in his gravelly tone. "He is - or 'had been' - a danger to the South Pacific region for years. But through all that time, he wasn't considered a high-level threat. Not until yesterday."

"Tritonians are always a thorn in Poseidonis's side, but rarely do they venture far from their own city Tritonis or Shalako's control. Red Belly may have lead a splinter group operating beyond the mage's influence towards El Rey, but he wouldn't have thought of that alone. Tritonians usually aren't smart. They need a strong presence to guide them, lead them, give them direction. And if that's the case, I have good reason to guess who their new master is."

"My thoughts exactly." Batman looked out through the window to see the large monitor highlight Luthor upon making his announcement of the El Rey fund. "Red Belly's nothing more than a thug. Point him in a direction, fire, and discard of him as soon as the job is done. Makes him nothing more than an expendable asset. Still, would've been nice to interrogate him."

"That was out of my control." Kaldur tried to not make it sound like an excuse, but he had to admit, Red Belly wasn't exactly your garden variety hired-hand either. His ribs still hurt every time he shuffled his weight to walk.

"Not your fault. Belly's strong because the stupid ones usually are. Doubt he would've been told much, but still, we need to act fast." Batman pulled up a hologram datapad from his wrist and typed out a message. "There's business back in Gotham I need to tend to," he said tapping away, "but while I'm away, you I'm sending off to Tritonis."

"Tritonis?" Kaldur flinched when his surprise caused a spasm of pain to shoot up again from his ribs.

"To better assess their situation; If a schism has erupted in their society, or if Shalako has had any dealings with the Light, we need to know. Red Belly's warning is clear enough he knew something we didn't, and if there's even a one percent chance of him being tied with the Light, we take it as an absolute certainty."

"But what about Beta, the other teams I've helped install? I can't leave them. Not yet, at least." Kaldur argued.

"They'll be fine. Teams were chosen specifically after assessing their capabilities and temperaments in handling situations when they arise. Same approach we took with you when you started. They'll be fine with their League sponsors." Batman turned to stare away from Kaldur and glanced over the crowded mess hall; there were more heroes aboard than there ever were Kaldur noted. A lot rested on these untried shoulders. "Numbers is the one thing we have that the Light doesn't. Even if it may be a case of quantity over quality, there is strength in that at least. We just need to trust they'll live up to League standards."

Kaldur knew battle lines were becoming blurred as pieces moved. Knights, rooks, and pawns probing for openings that may or may not be there, forays into no-man's land to control the squares. But as of yet there were no pieces taken, which only meant with every step taken the graver each possible mistake becomes. Mal stood out clearly in his mind. His battered body laying in a rejuvenation pod, Karen crying over hm, asking Kaldur if they were all going to be all right. He gave her an answer he didn't really quite believe. Nor Artemis for that matter, too. Kaldur can still picture her face glaring at him, questioning him, trying to find a reason to trust like she did on Manta's ship. But back when they were both pawns moving forward into the line of fire, the constant presence of danger made confiding in the other easy. But now that Kaldur was the one moving the pieces, Artemis - or Tigress - was finding it hard to delineate between her friend and her commander.

"So you're telling me trust has become a necessity and not a luxury. Is that why you placed Booster Gold in charge of Beta squad?" The golden clad hero hadn't exactly endeared himself to Beta while they were there, or to Kaldur. Especially with the way he was man-handled by the giant fish so easily.

Batman's eyes narrowed again. "Gold's support and popularity provide excellent cover for Beta to operate clandestinely. With added attention towards masks from the government, pragmatism's got a lot to do with trust nowadays. Not only that, but Gold's an asset I need. To better understand the inner workings in El Rey."

"And what is it about these 'inner workings' that's got your interest?" Kaldur's tried not to cause too much attention, but his voice rose higher than he would've liked. Higher too then Batman preferred as well. Kaldur didn't know if it was his lack of sleep, the pain meds subsiding making him cranky, or the insistence of Batman treating him like some low-key grunt.

"That they're important enough to warrant **my** attention." Kaldur had always pictured himself a tall person - his mother always likes to comment on his height whenever the receives a call from him. But the Bat had himself a large presence, as well. And to see this scowl appear from the shadows could easily make any street thug think twice about going down that dark alley.

"For six months the Light's been quiet, but yesterday El Rey was attacked, a city boasting the second largest seaport on the West coast. Do you think it coincidence not two months from now Luthor will strut his way across a California debate stage, too? No." Batman moved passed Kaldur like a shadow across a sundial: slow, measured, with a silent charge to duty untroubled by Kaldur's worry etched on his face. "We've been chasing ghosts through smoke and mirrors up to this point, Kaldur, but thanks to a monster we finally have a direction."

But Kaldur wouldn't let him off so easily. If not for him but for the sake of the others he left behind.

"One day in El Rey nearly blow our cover. If things continue to escalate who do they turn to? It can't be us, so is it Governor Mendez? Booster Gold? Some other hero?...Star Wolf?"

The name of the rogue hero peaked Kaldur's interest. He stayed up a good while looking at countless records for the hero in the League's databases, nodding off before his search gained him anything useful. Just a few blurbs here, a dozen or so pictures taken at various dates from League satellites there, and two newspaper articles: one from El Rey, a puff piece showcasing a smiling Star Wolf and his goofy glasses single-handedly saving the city from a cybernetic gorilla named Cyber Kong; and another from a Mexican border town, in a place with a name not worth remembering or a date which wasn't reliable, just a heading reading simply "El Demonio Borracho" that recounted a gruesome episode in a seedy strip club named the Titty Twister.

But he helped them save the city, helped save Kaldur's life. Though he wasn't about to endear himself to a stranger right off the bat, at least it was comforting to know there were others in El Rey who could be called on if things went south.

Batman stopped in his tracks, but didn't bother to turn and face Kaldur.

"You know of him?" Kaldur asked.

"Enough." It almost sounded like a sigh to Kaldur, or a groan of displeasure. "Spends most of his time off world traversing the outer sectors. Runs with pirates, smugglers, even been linked for a short stint with the bounty hunter Lobo."

 _"Perfect,"_ Kaldur mentally groaned. The only other person who seemed to be helpful at the moment was some galactic desperado. "There's little to go off in the records."

"Files of unregistered heroes are private. And as it so happens, the majority of El Rey's meta community aren't registered." The chattering of innocent conversations, the sliding of chairs and tables, of trays clacking against metallic surfaces, all seemed to stop as Batman fixed Kaldur in place with a stern gaze. "There's a reason why they're not part of the League and we are, Kaldur. Call his little act of charity whatever you want; helpful, fortuitous, divine, I don't care. But we don't lop the heads off criminals and call it a day. Strength isn't just about action, it's about restraint as well. Star Wolf is dangerous because of exactly that."

"Last I remember he was the one in control of the situation, not Booster Gold, and saved a city. I don't call that anything but doing his job, and I'll trust in the result."

"If you're going to justify the means with the result, go right ahead Kaldur. But make good excuses for bad acts, makes it easier to justify crossing that line in the future when you can find a better way."

Kaldur shook his head, knowing getting angry at this man was the equivalent of yelling at a fortune cookie to give you a better fortune; it's all wasted breath, and you still end up paying the check underneath anyway. "All I care is whether or not my friends are safe? All of them." Kaldur asked, a mirror to what Karen voiced last night. "You said you wanted an experienced team there, and I gave them to you without question. But for their sake and my peace of mind, I need to know if this 'wild card' isn't a liability? Can we trust him?"

A long pause followed, and maybe a slight twitch to Batman's shoulders. A normal person may not have detected it, and for a time, Kaldur may not have seen it too. But spend more than half a year conveying information to the Bat, and you notice a few things. The smallest quirk to this man was akin to opening up a Pandora's Box of information.

"...No." Was Batman's answer."But then again, we really can't trust anyone."

If watching Batman eat in a cafeteria was a novelty, watching walk through one was downright odd as hell. The large billowing black cape bounding with every step, eyes of new and raw heroes looking his way, at the cool kid making his move. But while they were in awe, Kaldur felt the sudden urge to want to take a glob of mashed potatoes from that guy's platter - Kaldur had no idea who he was, Atom Smasher maybe - and hurl it at the Bat's head.

Tritonis? Did he not know where that was? The ocean is seventy-one percent of this planet, and yet the surface people simply break it up into two parts: Pacific and Atlantic. Surveillance on Tritonis was not the same as popping into Bludhaven from Gotham, it was more like walking from one end of Russia to the next. Kaldur's fists balled up with annoyance. There was a time going back home would have been a joy to him, but now is where Kaldur felt less joy and more the weight of the situation than anything.

"Kaldur, hey!"

He turned to see a familiar green face in the midst of all the new ones. M'gann always looked at him the same no matter what. No ire and no disgust, just warm reassurance. She waved him over to the table she and Garfield were sitting at, enjoying their own American Chop Suey and mashed potatoes, Garfield stacking his tray so full of the stuff it was a wonder it even stayed there.

Kaldur went to join them, taking solace he could have at least a small moment of respite before his worry took him again.

* * *

 **The Lighthouse, El Rey**

 **Nov. 14; 9:15 PDT**

Reality couldn't have hit hard enough for Beta that morning. Whether it be not having anything good to eat for breakfast, trying to keep your hair out of your cereal bowl, or waking up to a damp, concrete shoebox in a haunted lighthouse, it all seemed relative. Not even mentioning how a good friend was in a medically induced coma for saving a city. Although, looking at the news, you would never be able to tell Beta had any involvement. Or maybe they did. But now dubbed the "Booster Brigade" by their new den mother. Headlines were eating it up as Artemis scoffed into her coffee and Bart was pillaging the pantry for pretty much **anything** to eat.

"What refreshing options we have for breakfast," Bart said sarcastically, tearing one box open. "We have either dry boring stuff, or... more dry boring stuff." His shoulders slumped, his arms hung limp and his face looked to get more sallow realizing he wasn't going to get his Humdinger breakfast this morning. "It's like the internment camp all over again."

Artemis understood Bart's insatiable hunger. A good fight always makes a hungry speedster. She remembered how Wally would always eat before a mission. And during a mission. And after one. Knowing well a speedster's metabolism was specifically geared for converting massive amounts of calories into energy. And if Bart doesn't eat, he gets no energy, and crashes. Literally. So the average cup of coffee or bowl of MC Crunch probably wasn't going to sate him as well as, let's say, Virgil or Artemis. As they sat politely at the cool and shiny stainless steel counter top in their barren kitchen, Virgil fighting a losing battle with the Hydra atop his head, and Artemis dragging her finger lazily across a tablet whilst, taking another prim sip from her coffee. Made black. Dark and bitter, like the eyes of a salty sea captain...

...Why the first thing that came to her mind was a salty sea captain's eyes she had no idea.

She blamed the lack of morning television.

"Tch, man!" Virgil throwing his head to beat away the dreadlocks. Artemis knew that feeling; long hair and cereal bowls were never a good mix. Poor kid couldn't even put his head down without a few strands finding their way into his bowl. "Sunnova - C'mon!"

He tried many methods of attack...

First he tried picking up the bowl and bringing it close to his face, but that was uncomfortable; his back was straight and his eyes stared directly ahead as he spooned mouthfuls of cornflakes into his mouth. Too awkward. Then placing the bowl on the counter, he attempted coming at it sideways, tipping the cereal into his mouth. All that got him was a face full of milk and a snigger from Artemis. Then caving in to hunger and impatience, he consigned himself by putting his chin on the table, hair cascading on either side of his face covering his eyes. He looked so much like Sam the Sheepdog Artemis almost wanted to take a picture of it.

She did.

The audible snap of the tablet camera broke out as Virgil sighed. "I just wanna eat my cereal." He said, deftly navigating his spoon past the curtains covering his face.

"What? You kinda look cute." Artemis smiled into her cup, understanding how aggravating it was to tango with long hair. Yet at the same time she did take sick pleasure in watching Virgil struggle. It might've been a girl-pride thing, seeing a guy not know how to cope with his long hair when she's mastered her own since the age of four. "You know I could always give you a headband."

"Not interested." Came Virgil's terse response. To their side, torn pieces of cardboard boxes flew from the pantry. Bart was doing his best Dig-Dug impression and was making about as much a mess as Artemis expected.

"Why don't you try using your static and levitate the spoon into your mouth." Artemis suggested.

"You want me to electrify a metal object, stick it into a liquid, and then put said metal object, now drenched in said liquid, into my mouth?"

"...Yes." Virgil let go of the spoon and sat up, shooting what Artemis may or may not have guessed was a glare due to the way his mouth quirked up. "What? Whatever the gets the job done, right? You stand on a metal manhole cover all the time and float."

"With rubber sneakers -"

"Do we not have anything more than cereal?!" Bart walked out of the pantry with the spoils of his plunder, but the boy looked none the happy as he corralled four cereal boxes in his arms. "If the anthropomorphized rabbit wants my cinnamon squares he can have'em!" The boxes were dropped on the floor as his arms hung defeated and listlessly by his sides. He shambled over to Artemis with his best zombie impression - which was a little heavy on the drool - to drupe his head onto her shoulder.

"You know you could always cut your hair." Wasn't completely out of the question. High and tight, that's what Jade always told her about hair. Good advice, but not that she followed it, though. Not that she followed a lot of the advice her older sister told her. Besides. Kinda hypocritical coming from a girl that who had herself an 80's blow-out.

"You know how long it took to grow these?" Virgil said, bringing up one of the long strands to show Artemis. Bart, too. If he cared enough to stop groaning about his hunger.

"About as long as it takes to wait for the handsome prince to ride underneath your window?"

"Oh, ha ha. What you drinking from, the 'smug mug' or something this morning?" Virgil's voice skipped a little, the glorious awkwardness of puberty rearing it's head past his dreads; he blew away one of them as it got near his mouth " *Foo* You sound just like Sharon."

That certainly piqued Artemis's interest. Sharon. That was a name she never heard before...Well, to be totally fair, she never did hear Virgil say much of anything before either. In fact, this right here happened to be their longest conversation. Ever. And it was about his hair.

Artemis stared over at Virgil, a quick study of the kid. Ever since joining the League, or Team, or whatever (it was still hard to keep track), Designation B26 aka Static (God, that made her sound like Booster Gold) may as well have been Sam the Sheepdog to her. And call it professional curiosity - she was going to be working with him for an undetermined time; or paranoia - he was a Reach experiment, and she definitely knew how those went, she decided now was about as a good a time as any to get to know B26 beyond the "B" and "26".

"So...Sharon?" Artemis said before slurping her coffee. And not just slurp, but SLURP, acting like it wasn't at all aggravating. "Girlfriend?"

The poor attempt at prying was noted by Virgil. Duly noted. "Sister."

Bart stopped his groaning on Artemis's shoulder to ask. "Hot sister?"

"My sister." Was the deadpan response to that little chestnut. Ending whatever fantasy Bart may or may not have been concocting in his head.

The screeching of a metal spoon scraping against ceramic came as Virgil began to spin it around the rim, penetrating the awkward silence hovering in the air. He wasn't saying anything. Artemis sorta hit a wall. You never realize how hard it is to start a forced conversation until actually having to force one.

"So...? Cool, annoying, slightly psychotic, all of the above?" Sounded familiar.

"Sharon's whatever." Virgil shrugged.

"Don't wanna talk about whatever?" Artemis said absentmindedly, scrolling again through the plethora of news stories on her tablet. About El Rey's attack, them (though they weren't supposed to talked about), Booster Gold and his Fab Fall Fashion tips for SoCal.

"Rather talk about my hair."

"Why?" Bart added in with his little charm.

Virgil scooped at his cereal, dug at it, swept it away, shook his head which didn't help his predicament, and sighed quite noticeably. "Because I can figure out a way to keep my hair out of my cereal bowl; I can't think of a way to keep Sharon out of my life. If I talk about Sharon, Sharon's gonna call. And when Sharon calls, all Sharon wants to do is talk about me. I don't wanna talk about me."

"Well said, B26, well said. Teenage independence at its finest, even if it does sound a little pissy." She couldn't help but let out another smile creep as Virgil played the 'reclusive teen' card. "I can kinda relate to that; I don't wanna talk about me either. That's why I wanna talk about you."

Virgil may have snorted because of Artemis's sass, or because his dreads threatened to strangle his face yet again. Girls always want to talk to guys when they don't want to. Why? It's like an innate skill they all possessed he thought.

"Okay," Virgil said, stopping his spinning spoon and throwing his head back. He walked over to the sink and placed his bowl down. "Listen," he said turning the faucet on to rinse the bowl, "I get it. Team bonding and all that, and heck anytime I'd be down. But not right now. The ways I see it 'Tigress', this is just the beginning of the game and you just made out the dungeon. Right now you're level one, so some dialogue trees aren't gonna be open until we build up some trust."

Artemis snorted. That was a good one. She never gave that response before: a reason to negate social interaction with an elder for personal topics because of video game logic. Bart nodded his head emphatically and totally agreed, saying in order to unlock certain character interactions Artemis's conversation skills and cooking skills needed to be enhanced.

Then they can unlock new outfits.

"Oh my God, I'm with a bunch of nerds." Artemis played it cool and tactful, just like she knew her mother couldn't when she was this age. "What if I help you tame that hair later on and we can talk about whatever then?"

"Get your headbands ready then," Virgil smirked as he made his way over to the stairs. "I'm gonna go check on Karen, offer her some coffee or something. She was up all night watching Mal."

Artemis knew. She heard. Karen's shuffling feet kept her up some as she kept pacing back and forth, checking on Mal's vitals and heart rate throughout the night as the med-gels induced sleep, whilst various lazer sutures cauterized and sealed his wounds. It was a tedious process. One which might put Mal out of action for a time while he recovered, but couldn't get to Karen.

Even though Artemis would most likely have done the exact same thing if she were in Karen's shoes, she knew regardless those shoes needed to be boots; ready to go without any hesitation whatsoever. Karen was the smartest one here in the Lighthouse, and having a sleep-deprived and stressed out genius was not going to help anyone.

And from what her little tablet was telling her, they were going to need all the help they could get.

"...The boardwalk and downtown areas are so far closed to the public for the time being. Mayor Chattham in his address this morning reiterates it is for public safety, citing site-checks for building integrity and clean-up for Sea-Men plasma, which is believed to be toxic. Crews are on hand now to -" Went the news story.

Wasn't the only one. There were about a dozen or so of these popping up across the network. Puffy editorial pieces of Booster Gold's face plastered everywhere. With his Ken-doll hair, Ken-doll smile, all flash and no substance from their League "sponsored' den mother. Kaldur said if she was miffed at the decision she should blame him. Okay. She blamed him. And with every story she scrolled past with this idiot's grin on the front cover, she at least relished careening her fist into it.

The media's disgusting patronizing may turn him into Jesus Christ Superstar, but Artemis saw enough of these idiots growing up in Gotham to know it was all about smiles and cries with them; a smile to for trust, a cry to hide. Booster may have had time to go over whatever data folder the League gave him in lieu of their arrival, but she only needed a second with the man to know she didn't like nor trust him.

Men like him can hide a lot of things behind a smile. And in world of smiles and cries, safer just to scowl. A scowl you knew meant business. Batman could agree with that sentiment, he did it almost nonstop.

"Scowl at the tablet any longer and you might hurt its feelings." Bart said wheeling around her shoulder over to the fridge.

"I'm not scowling. This is just my resting face." She said taking another sip from her coffee.

"You're resting face always make you look like that?"

"Look like what?"

"Intimidating," Bart sped over to the fridge hoping there could be something worth eating in there, but lo and behold, nothing. "It's crazy. The League's able to zeta people halfway around the world if need to, but they don't do it for food. A wholly terrible waste of an otherwise awesome application for teleporting."

"Well, there needs be some sort of bruiser on this team now that we're basically being lead by a Saturday morning cartoon character." Artemis turned the tablet over to Bart and enlarged the Gold's face.

Booster may be smiling, but Bart frowned. His head still smarted from the thwack he received from the stupid fish-thing monster from yesterday. Expedited healing helped, but without the presence of a hearty meal to top it off, it was taking a bit longer than Bart liked. "First time I woke up with a headache since getting a beating in the labor camps. Major case of brain fog right now..." Bart pulled a glass from the cupboard and the milk from the fridge. Setting the glass down, he poured himself a tall one of cool calcium liquid. But as he moved back to set the jug into the fridge, he instead placed the glass there and shut the door. He turned to face Artemis as if nothing odd had happened at all. "Can't think straight."

" _That sounded like a concussion_ ," Artemis thought as she saw Bart sway a little where he stood.

"Speaking of bruisers." He said unfazed and removing the gallon from his mouth, spilling a bit of as he drew it away. "That guy from yesterday. Mr. Mode Crasher. Big fuzzy leather jacket, funny sunglasses, straight up MKO'd the big bad Belly dude. **That** guy..."

"He's who I've been looking for the past three hours." He was the reason why Artemis had the tablet in her hand. She'd been scouring most of the morning on the lookout for their triangle-shaded savior, but local news reports said nothing. "But first thing I learned about the news, anything newsworthy doesn't end up on the news first."

Odd didn't describe it thoroughly enough. As Artemis scrolled through the networks, all she found were pieces minutely detailing the events of the attack, bu aggrandizing Booster's involvement. Red Belly was mentioned, as was Booster and the Booster Brigade but nothing in particular about anything else. Nothing specific about Red Belly's motives. Nothing at all about the other supposed heroes Kaldur had said made a home in El Rey who were all noticeably absent. Nothing about the good Samaritan with the shiny arm who knew how to throw himself a mean right hook.

Bart leaned over Artemis's shoulder to take a peek at the tablet, spying Booster's smiling expression. "You know how Copernicus found out the sun was the center of the universe? Yeah, well, I don't think anyone told him." Bart said, noticing the obscene amount of press this man got around here.

The guy liked it. Why wouldn't he. Hamming it up with reporters, going off on his "symbol of hope" shpeel the other night, a celebrity who loved to be the center of attention. Bart had a knack to want to be that too at times, but this right here? A bit strong. Especially when the guy didn't seem strong in the first place. "Guy gets pulverized into a building, we clean up the mess, and he gets the benefit of the doubt afterwards. All flash and no substance and oh my God so that's what Mirror Master meant when he kept saying that to me...What a dick."

"Coming from a guy who's only power is to faze in and out of mirrors, I wouldn't take it too personally." Artemis brought up another tab searching for anything pertaining to the attack, typing a number of different searches: "Red Belly Arch-Enemies", "El Rey Metas", "Metal Armed Heroes". But Artemis got close to nothing. "But you're right, 'all flash, no substance'." Artemis said derisively. "League sponsored my ass; he puts on a lazer show for everyone, and gets a fist in his face for the second time that day. Leaving us to fend for ourselves and rely on the charity of a stranger to survive. All the while Mal gets seriously hurt and we become the byproduct for this guy's marketing scheme to advertise himself."

"Now that did sound personal." Bart quipped.

"Because it is." Artemis scoured a list of sites before tapping on _Candid Capes -_ the fifth site on the tenth page on an Ask Revis search engine which probably hadn't been used in years. "The League sends a speedster, an electricity wielder, a woman who can shrink herself down to become the most obscure intelligence gatherer ever and can shoot lazers, a tough fighter with a golden shield, and a martial artist with crazy ninja skills. All to be led by this guy." Artemis turned the tablet around as she blew up another picture of Booster Gold.

Artemis dropped down a menu of videos to the side of Gold's picture, tapping the tab 'recently uploaded videos'. "And if yesterday is anything to go by, El Rey is not just some blip on the map. You don't just fight some crazy monster on the first day in a new city and chalk it up to serendipity. The Light is here. Call it Gotham cynicism or whatever, something's not right."

"I don't think you're cynical." Bart nodded his head in agreement, looking at Artemis with a smile on his face. "And I hate sitting down. So," Bart leaned forward placing both of his arms underneath his chin, looking over at Artemis with an expectant gaze. "What's our mode? You got a plan, right?"

Artemis looked down contemptuously at Booster Gold's shining resplendent grin in spite of all that rubble behind him. A charmer, that's for sure. She knew how to avoid these pretty faces a long time ago - knew how to bust a few of 'em up too. Because there's one thing you could never count on in life her dad told her: 'pretty faces don't mean for shit'. Life's a fight, and no one stays pretty after one - a good one. Because you can't trust pretty, but you can trust ugly.

Ugly didn't hide. Ugly saw the fist coming and took it right on its chin and got even uglier. She remembered that's what her father taught one training session, when he broke her left humerus with a steel toed boot and refused to let up any. She could've stopped, could've have just curled up in a ball and took the beating, knowing full well Sportsmaster wasn't in to killing his own for sport. But she didn't. She snarled. She fought. She kicked, bit, and clawed with her good arm until one misstep left an opening she could exploit. Right between his legs. Wasn't by-the-book, but that lesson was satisfying. She got to kick her father in the balls and learned a valuable lesson because dad - in his usual sick way of simplification - was sort of right: an ugly snarl was more honest than a pretty smile.

"Well, seeing as how we're now a part of the Booster Brigade, meant to protect the city of El Rey and all that, I think it's worth to take in our new surroundings. And who knows," Artemis said tapping the tablet and turning it around for Bart. Leaning forward on his elbows, squinting his eyes to see the blurred figure standing in the street, skeptical, thinking it was the man he thought saved him...Or maybe not. The concussion still made remembering things a little fuzzy. "We might meet some interesting people?"

Artemis dragged her finger across the video. It was grainy, source-site looked untrustworthy to Bart and seedy like a gas station bathroom. Or like the nasty comic shop in that alleyway you felt only Batman would go in, the only one that carried Star Wars: Revenge of the Jedi, the original working title of the movie before being changed to "Return of the Jedi". How Bart could make those comparisons was all thanks to the internet, which he still had a hard time deciding if it was a good or bad thing.

"Star Wolf," the video said. "Returned," it said. "Save 10% on your insurance by switching to this insurance company" an advertisement beneath the video said. Booster Gold endorsed. "Okay." Bart said, smiling with a bit of mischief in his voice. "I like meeting new people in new places."

And plus while they were out, maybe snag some breakfast.


End file.
